Call number PS2162.R6 1872 (Davis Library,
UNC-CH)

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PREFACE.
THE tale related in the following pages refers to a period
in the history of Maryland, which has heretofore been
involved in great obscurity, - many of the most important
records connected with it having been lost to public
inspection in forgotten repositories, where they have
crumbled away under the touch of time. To the persevering
research of the accomplished Librarian of the State - a
gentleman whose dauntless antiquarian zeal and liberal
scholarship are only surpassed by the enlightened judgment
with which he discharges the functions of his office -
we are indebted for the rescue of the remnant of these
memorials of by-gone days, from the oblivion to which the
carelessness of former generations had consigned them.
Many were irrecoverable; and it was the fate of the
gentleman referred to, to see them fall into dust at the moment
that the long estranged light first glanced upon them.

To some of those which have been saved from this
wreck, the author is indebted for no small portion of the
materials of his story. In his endeavor to illustrate these
passages in the annals of the state, it is proper for him to

say that he has aimed to perform his task with historical
fidelity. If he has set in harsher lights than may be
deemed charitable some of the actors in these scenes, or
portrayed in lineaments of disparagement or extenuation,
beyond their deserts, the partisans on either side in that
war of intolerance which disfigured the epoch of this tale,
it was apart from his purpose. As a native of the state,
he feels a prompt sensibility to the fame of her Catholic
founders, and, though differing from them in his faith,
cherishes the remembrance of their noble endeavors to
establish religious freedom, with the affection due to what
he believes the most wisely planned and honestly executed
scheme of society which at that era, at least, was to
be found in the annals of mankind. In the temper
inspired by this sentiment, these volumes have been
given to the public, and are now respectfully inscribed to
THE STATE OF MARYLAND, by one who takes the deepest
interest in whatever concerns her present happiness or
ancient renown.

CHAPTER I.

No
more thy glassy brook reflects the day,
But
choked with sedges, works its weedy way;
Along
thy glades a solitary guest,
The
hollow-sounding bittern guards its nest;
Amidst
thy desert walks the lapwing flies,
And
tires their echoes with unvaried cries.
Sunk
are thy bowers in shapeless ruin all,
And
the long grass o'ertops the mould'ring wall.
THE
DESERTED VILLAGE.

IT is now more than one
hundred and forty-four years since
the ancient capital of Maryland was shorn of its honors, by the
removal of the public offices, and, along with them, the public
functionaries, to Annapolis. The date of this removal, I think,
is recorded as of the year of grace sixteen hundred and
ninety-four. The port of St. Mary's up to that epoch, from the first
settlement of the province, comprehending rather more than three
score years, had been the seat of the Lord Proprietary's
government. This little city had grown up in hard-favored times,
which had their due effect in leaving upon it the visible tokens of
a stunted vegetation: it waxed gnarled and crooked, as it perked
itself upward through the thorny troubles of its existence, and
might be likened to the black jack, which yet retains a foothold
in this region, - a scrubby, tough and hardy mignon of the forest,
whose elder day of crabbed luxuriance affords a sour comment
upon the nurture of its youth.

the left bank of the river which now bears the same name (though
of old it was called St. George's) and which flows into the
Potomac at the southern extremity of the state of Maryland, on
the western side of the Chesapeake Bay, at a short distance
westward from Point Lookout: but the very spot where the old
city stood is known only to a few, - for the traces of the early
residence of the Proprietary government have nearly faded away
from the knowledge of this generation. An astute antiquarian
eye, however, may define the site of the town by the few scattered
bricks which the ploughshare has mingled with the ordinary
tillage of the fields. It may be determined, still more visibly, by
the mouldering and shapeless ruin of the ancient State House,
whose venerable remains - I relate it with a blush - have been
pillaged, to furnish building materials for an unsightly church,
which now obtrusively presents its mottled, mortar-stained and
shabby front to the view of the visitor, immediately beside the
wreck of this early monument of the founders of Maryland.
Over these ruins a storm-shaken and magnificent mulberry,
aboriginal, and cotemporary
with the settlement of the province,
yet rears its shattered and topless trunk, and daily distils upon
the sacred relics at its foot, the dews of heaven, - an august
and brave old mourner to the departed companions of its prime.
There is yet another memorial in the family tomb of the Proprietary,
whose long-respected and holy repose, beneath the scant
shade of the mulberry, has, within twenty years past, been desecrated
by a worse than Vandal outrage, and whose lineaments may
now with difficulty be followed amidst the rubbish produced by
this violation.

These faded memorials tell their story like honest chronicles.
And a brave story it is of hardy adventure, and manly love of
freedom! The scattered bricks, all shouldered in the mother-land,
remind us of the launching of the bark, the struggle with the

unfamiliar wave, the array of the wonder-stricken savage, and
the rude fellowship of the first meeting. They recall the hearths
whose early fires gleamed upon the visage of the bold cavalier,
while the deep, unconquerable faith of religion, and the
impassioned instincts of the Anglo-Saxon devotion to liberty, were
breathed by household groups, in customary household terms.
They speak of sudden alarms, and quick arming for battle; - of
stout resolve, and still stouter achievement. They tell of the
victory won, and quiet gradually confirmed, - and of the increasing
rapture as, day by day, the settler's hopes were converted into
realities, when he saw the wilderness put forth the blossoms
of security and comfort.

The river penetrates from the Potomac some twelve miles
inland, where it terminates in little forked bays which wash the
base of the woody hills. St. George's Island stretches half across
its mouth, forming a screen by which the course of the Potomac
is partly concealed from view. From this island, looking northward,
up St. Mary's river, the eye rests upon a glittering sheet of
water about a league in breadth, bounded on either shore by low
meadow-grounds and cultivated fields girt with borders of forest;
whilst in the distance, some two leagues upward, interlocking
promontories, with highlands in their rear, and cedar-crowned
cliffs and abrupt acclivities which shut in the channel, give to the
river the features of a lake. St. Inigoe's creek, flowing into the
river upon the right hand, along the base of these cliffs, forms by
its southern shore a flat, narrow and grass-clad point, upon which
the ancient Jesuit House of the patron saint whose name
distinguishes the creek, throws up, in sharp relief, its chateau-like
profile, together with its windmill, its old trees, barns and cottages,
- the whole suggesting a resemblance to a strip of pasteboard
scenery on a prolonged and slender base line of green.

reached the promontories which formed his first perspective, the
river, now reduced to a gun-shot in width, again opens to his view
a succession of little bays, intercepted by more frequent headlands
and branching off into sinuous creeks that lose themselves in the
hills. Here and there, amongst these creeks, a slender beach of
white sand separates from its parent flood a pool, which reposes
like a mirror in the deep forest; and all around, high hills sweep
down upon these placid lakes, and disclose half-embowered
cottages, whose hoary roofs and antique forms turn the musings
of the spectator to the palmy days of the Lord Proprietary.

A more enchanting landscape than St. Mary's river, - a lovelier
assemblage of grassy bank and hoary grove, upland slope, cliff, cot
and strand, of tangled brake and narrow bay, broad, seaward
roadstead and air-suspended cape, may not be found beneath the
yearly travel of the sun!

The ancient city was situated nearly two miles beyond the
confluence of St. Inigoe's creek, upon a spacious level plain which
maintained an elevation of some fifty feet above the river. The
low-browed, double-roofed and cumbrous habitations of the
townspeople were scattered at random over this plain, forming snug and
pleasant groups for a painter's eye, and deriving an air of competence
and comfort from the gardens and bowers in which they were
sheltered. The State House stood at the upper extremity of the
town, upon a cedar-clad headland which, by an abrupt descent,
terminated in a long, flat, sandy point, that reached almost half
across the river. In regard to this building, tradition - which I
find to be somewhat inclined to brag of its glory - affirms it
to have been constructed in the shape of a cross, looking towards
the river, with walls thick enough to resist cannon, and perilous
steep roofs, from the top of the chief of which shot up a spire,
whereon was impaled a dolphin with a crooked, bifurcated tail.
A wooden quay and warehouse on the point showed this to be the

seat of trade, and a crescent-shaped bay or indentation between
this and a similar headland at the lower extremity of the town,
constituted the anchorage or harbor for the scant shipping
of the port.

The State House looked rearward over the town common, - a
large space of open ground, at the farther end of which, upon the
border of a marshy inlet, covered with bulrushes and cat-tails,
stood a squat, sturdy and tight little jail, supported - to use the
military phrase- - on one flank by a pillory and stocks, and on the
other by an implement of government which has gone out of
fashion in our day, but which found favor with our ancestors as an
approved antidote to the prevalent distemper of an unnecessary
or too clamorous loquacity in their dames - a ducking stool, that
hung suspended over a pool of sufficient depth for the most
obstinate case that might occur.

Without wearying my reader with too much description, I
shall content myself with referring to but two or three additional
particulars as necessary to my future purpose: a Catholic chapel
devoted to St. Ignatius, the patron of the province, in humble and
unostentatious guise, occupied, with its appurtenances, a few acres
in the centre of the plain, a short distance from that confine of the
city which lay nearest to St. Inigoe's; and in the opposite quarter,
not far from the State House, a building of much more pretension,
though by no means so neat, had been erected for the service of
the Church of England, which was then fast growing into the
ascendant. On one of the streets leading to the beach was the
market-house, surrounded by its ordinaries and ale-houses: and
lastly, in the year 1681, to which this description refers, a little
hostelry of famous report, known by the sign of "The Crow and
Archer," and kept by Master Garret Weasel, stood on the water's
edge, at the foot of the bank below the State House, on a piece
of level ground looking out upon the harbor, where the traveller

may still find a luxuriant wilderness of pear trees, the scions of a
notable ancestor which, tradition says, the aforesaid Garret planted
with his own hand.

The country around St. Mary's bore, at the period I have
designated, the same broad traces of settlement and cultivation
which belong to it at the present day. For many miles the scene
was one of varied field and forest, studded over with dwellings
and farm-yards. The settlement had extended across the neck
of land to the Chesapeake, and along both shores of St. Mary's
river to the Potomac. This open country was diversified by
woodland, and enlivened everywhere by the expanse of
navigable water which reflected sun and sky, grove and field and
lowly cottage in a thousand beautiful lights. Indeed, all the
maritime border of the province, comprehending Calvert, St.
Mary's and Charles, as well as the counties on the opposite shore
of the Chesapeake, might be said, at this date, to be in a
condition of secure and prosperous habitation. The great ocean
forest had receded some hundred miles westward from St.
Mary's. The region of country comprising the present county
of Anne Arundel, as well as Cecil and the Isle of Kent, was a
frontier already settled with numerous tenants of the Lord
Proprietary. All westward from this was the birthright of the
stern Sasquesahannoch, the fierce Shenandoah, and their kindred
men of the woods.

They are gone! Like shadows have these men of might
sunk on the earth. They, their game, their wigwams, their
monuments, their primeval forests, - yea, even their graves, have
flitted away in this spectral flight. Saxon and Norman, bluff
Briton and heavy Suabian inherit the land. And in its turn,
well-a-day! our pragmatical little city hath departed. Not all
its infant glory, nor its manhood's bustle, its walls, gardens and
bowers, - its warm housekeeping, its gossiping burghers, its

politics and its factions, - not even its prolific dames and
gamesome urchins could keep it in the upper air until this our
day. Alas, for the vaulting pride of the village, the vain glory
of the city, and the metropolitan boast! St. Mary's hath sunk
to the level of Tyre and Sidon, Balbec and Palmyra! She hath
become trackless, tokenless.

I have wandered over the blank field where she sank down
to rest. It was a book whose characters I could scarce decipher.
I asked for relics of the departed. The winter evening tale
told by father to son, and the written legend, more durable than
monument of marble, have survived to answer my question, when
brick and tile, hearth and tomb have all vanished from the quest
of the traveller.

What I have gathered from these researches will occupy my
reader through the following pages.

CHAPTER II.

A
train-band captain eke was he.
JOHN
GILPIN.

AT the extremity of the
cape or headland which formed the
lower or more seaward point of the crescent-shaped harbor,
was erected the Fort of St. Mary's, where it threatened equal
defiance to such as might meditate disturbance by sea or by
land. A few hundred paces in the rear of the fort, stood the
ample dwelling-house of the Lord Proprietary with its gables,
roofs, chimneys and spires, sharply defined against the eastern
sky. A massive building of dark brick, two stories in height,
and penetrated by narrow windows, looking forth, beyond the
fort, upon the river, constituted the chief member or main body
of the mansion. This was capped by a wooden, balustraded
parapet, terminating, at each extremity, in a scroll, and, in the
middle, sustaining an entablature that rose to a summit on which
was mounted a weathercock. From this central structure, right
and left, a series of arcades and corridors served to bring into
line a range of subordinate buildings of grotesque shapes, of
which several were bonneted like haycocks - the array terminating,
on one flank, in a private chapel surmounted by a cross, and,
on the other, in a building of similar size but of different figure,
which was designed and sometimes used for a banqueting room.
The impression produced on the observer, by this orderly though
not uniform mass of building, with its various offices for household

comfort, was not displeasing to his sense of rural beauty,
nor, from its ample range and capacious accommodation, did it
fail to enhance his opinion of the stateliness and feudal importance,
as well as of the hospitality of the Lord Proprietary.
The armorial bearings of the Baltimore family, emblazoned on a
shield of free-stone, were built into the pediment of an arched
brick porch which shaded the great hall door. In the rear of
the buildings, a circular sweep of wall and paling reached as far
as a group of stables, kennels and sheds. Vanward the same
kind of enclosures, more ornate in their fashion, shut in a grassy
court, to which admission was gained through a heavy iron gate
swung between square, stuccoed pillars, each of which was
surmounted by a couchant lion carved in stone. Ancient trees
shaded the whole mass of dwelling-house, court and stable, and
gave to the place both a lordly and comfortable aspect. It was
a pleasant group of roof and bower, of spire and tree to look
upon from the city, towards sunset, when every windowpane
flung back the lustre of a conflagration; and magnificently did
it strike upon the eye of the liegemen as they sat at their doors,
at that hour, gazing upon the glorious river and its tranquil
banks. Nor less pleasant was it to the inmates of the baronial
mansion to look back upon the fair village-city, studding the
level plain with its scattered dwellings which seemed to sleep
upon the grassy and shaded sward.

A garden occupied the space between the proprietary residence
and the fort, and through it a pathway led to a dry moat
which formed one of the defenses of the stronghold, into which
admission was obtained from this quarter by a narrow bridge and
postern gate. A palisade of sharp pickets fringed the outer and
inner slopes of the ditch, - or, to speak more technically, guarded
the scarp and counterscarp. The fort itself sat like a square
bonnet on the brow of the headland. Its ramparts of earth were

faced outwardly by heavy framework of hewn logs, which, on
the side looking askant towards the town, were penetrated by an
arched gateway and secured by heavy doors studded thick with
nails. This portal opened upon a road which lay along the
beach beneath the cliff, all the way to the upper extremity of the
town. Several low buildings within, appropriated to barracks
and magazines, just peered above the ramparts. A few pieces
of brass cannon showed like watch-dogs against the horizon, and,
high above all, fluttered the provincial banner bearing the cross
of England, and holding the relation of a feather to the squat
bonnet which the outline of the work might suggest to one
curious to trace resemblances.

The province, it may be surmised, was belligerent at this day.
For although the Lords Barons of Baltimore, absolute Proprietaries
of Maryland and Avalon, would fain have encouraged
a pacific temper, and desired ever to treat with the Indians upon
terms of friendly bargain and sale, and in all points of policy
manifested an equitable disposition towards the native men of
the forest, the province, nevertheless, had its full share of hard
blows. There was seldom a period, in this early time, when some
Indian quarrel was not coming to a head; and, young as the
province was, it had already tasted of rebellion at the hands of
Clayborne, and Ingle, - to say nothing of that Fendall who was
fain to play Cromwell in the plantation, by turning the burgesses
out of their hall, and whose sedition hath still something to do
with my story. - However peaceable, therefore, the Lord
Proprietary might incline to be, he could not but choose stand by
his weapons.

In the view of these and kindred troubles, the freemen of the
province had no light service in their obligations of military duty.
One of the forms in which this service was exacted, in addition
to the occasional requisition, on emergency, of the whole

population fit to bear arms, and in addition also to a force of mounted
rangers who were constantly engaged in scouring the frontier,
was in the maintenance of a regularly paid and trained body of
musketeers who supplied the necessary garrisons for the principal
forts. That of St. Mary's, which was the oldest and most
redoubtable stronghold in the province, was furnished with a
company of forty men of this class who were, at the date of this
tale, under the command of a personage of some note, Captain
Jasper Dauntrees, to whom I propose to introduce my reader
with something more than the slight commendation of a casual
acquaintance.

This worthy had been bred up to the science of arms from
early youth, and had seen many varieties of service, - first, in the
civil wars in which he took the field with the royal army, a
staunch cavalier, - and afterwards, with a more doubtful
complexion of loyalty, when he enlisted with Monk in Scotland, and
followed his banner to London in the notable exploit of the
Restoration. Yielding to the bent of that humor which the times
engendered, and in imitation of many a hungry and peace-despising
gallant of his day, he repaired to the continent, where,
after various fortunes, he found himself in the train of Turenne
and hard at loggerheads with the Prince of Orange, in which
passage of his life he enjoyed the soldierly gratification of lending
a hand to the famous ravage of the Palatinate.

Some few years before I have presented him in these pages he
had come over to Maryland, with a party of Flemings, to gather
for his old age that harvest of wealth and ease which the common
report promised to all who set foot upon the golden shores
of the Indies - Maryland, in vulgar belief, being a part of this
land of wonders. The captain neither stumbled upon a gold
mine, nor picked up an Indian princess with a dowry of diamonds;
but he fared scarce worse, in his own estimation, when he found

himself, in a pleasant sunny clime, invested with the rank of
captain of musketeers, with a snug shelter in the fort, a reasonably
fair and punctually disbursed allowance of pay - much better
than had been his lot under former masters, - and a frank
welcome at all times into the mansion of the Lord Proprietary.
Add to these, the delights more congenial to the training of his
past life, a few wet companions, namely, to help him through an
evening potation, and no despicable choice of wines and other
comforts at the Crow and Archer, where the Captain became a
domesticated and privileged guest, and it may still better be
comprehended how little he was likely to repine at his fortune.

His figure had, in youth, been evidently remarked for strength
and symmetry - but age and varied service, combined with habits
of irregular indulgence, had communicated to it a bluff and
corpulent dimension. His port nevertheless was erect, and his
step as firm as in his days of lustihood. His eye still sparkled
with rays but little quenched by time, although unseasonable
vigils sometimes rendered it bloodshotten. A thick neck and
rosy complexion betokened a hale constitution; and the ripple
of a deep and constantly welling humor, that played upon his
strongly marked features, expressed in characters that could not
be misread, that love of companionship which had been, perhaps,
the most frequent shoal upon which his hopes in life had been
stranded. His crown was bald and encircled by a fair supply of
crisp, curly, and silvery hair, whilst a thick gray moustache gave
no martial and veteran air to his visnomy.

His dress served to set off his figure to the best advantage.
It consisted of the doublet and ruff, short cloak and trunk hose,
the party-colored stocking and capacious boot proper to the old
English costume which, about the period of the Restoration,
began to give way to the cumbrous foppery of the last century.
This costume was still retained by many in the province, and

belonged to the military equipment of the garrison of St. Mary's,
where it was fashioned of light green cloth garnished with yellow
lace.

Arrayed in this guise, Captain Dauntrees had some excuse
for a small share of vanity on the score of having worn well up
to a green old age; and it was manifest that he sought to
improve this impression by the debonair freedom with which he
wore a drab beaver, with its broad flap looped up on one side,
leaving his ample brow bared to wind and weather.

This combination of the martinet and free companion exhibited
in the dress of the Captain, was a pretty intelligible index to his
character, which disclosed a compound, not unfrequent in the
civil wars of that period, of the precisian and ruffler - the cavalier
and economist. In the affairs of life - a phrase which, in regard
to him, meant such matters principally and before all others, as
related to his own comfort - he was worldly-wise, sagaciously
provident, as an old soldier, of whatever advantages his condition
might casually supply; in words, he was, indifferently, according
to the occasion, a moralist or hot-brained reveller - sometimes
affecting the courtier along with the martialist, and mixing up
the saws of peaceful thrift with the patter of the campaigns.

As the occasions of my story may enable me to illustrate
some of these points in the character of the worthy Captain, I
will not forestall the opinion of my readers, regarding him, by
further remark, preferring that he should speak for himself,
rather than leave his merits to be certified by so unpractised an
adept, as I confess myself to be, in unriddling the secret
properties of a person so deserving to be known.

CHAPTER III.

"In every creed,
'Tis on all hands agreed,
And plainly confest,
When the weather is hot,
That we stick to the pot
And drink of the best."
OLD
SONG.

"OF all seasons of
the year, autumn is the most voluptuous,
and October the loveliest of months. Then may a man sit at his
door - in the sun if he choose, for he will not find it too hot - or
in the shade, if it liketh him, for neither will he find this too
cool, and there hold converse with his own meditations: or he
may ride or walk, dance or sing, for in this October time a man
hath heart for any pastime, so rich is the air, and such pleasant
imaginations doth it engender. And if he be poetical, therein
will he be greatly favored; for surely never Nature puts on such
gaudy attire, on earth or sky, as she wears in our October.
The morning haze, which the hoar-frost flings up to meet the
sun, hangs across the landscape as if made on purpose to enchant
the painter; and the evening sunset lights up the heavens with
a glory that shall put that painter - even Claude or Salvator -
to shame at the inadequacy of his art. And then the woods!
what pallet hath colors for the forest? Of all the months of the
year, commend me to October!"

Some such rhapsody as this was running through the thoughts,
and breaking forth in slight mutterings from the lips of the

Captain of Musketeers, on an afternoon in this much lauded
month of October, in the year I have alluded to in a former
chapter, as he sat in front of his quarters in the fort. A small
table was displayed on the pavement, supplied with a flagon,
pipes, and drinking cups. The Captain's solid bulk was deposited
in a broad arm-chair, close by the table. His sword and cloak
lay upon a bench at the door, and a light breeze flickered amongst
his short and hoary locks, where they escaped from the cover of
a cloth bonnet which he had now substituted for his beaver. A
sentinel stood on post at the gate, towards which the Captain,
as he slowly quaffed a cup, ever and anon turned an expectant
eye. Once or twice he rose from his seat and strode backward
and forward across the parade, then visited the rampart, which
afforded him a view of the road leading from the town, and
finally resumed his seat and renewed his solitary and slow potation.

When the sun had sunk halfway down the flag-staff, the
Captain's wishes were crowned by the arrival of a brace of
visitors.

The first of these was Garret Weasel, the publican, a thin,
small man, in a suit of gray; of a timid carriage and slender
voice. He might have been observed for a restless, undefinable
eye, which seemed to possess the habitual circumspection of a
tapster to see the need of a customer; and this expression was
sustained by a rabbit-like celerity of motion which raised the
opinion of his timidity. There was an air of assentation and
reverence in his demeanor, which, perhaps, grew out of the
domestic discipline of his spouse, a buxom dame with the heart
of a lioness. She had trained Master Garret to her hand, where
he might have worn out his days in implicit obedience, had it
not luckily fallen out for him that Captain Dauntrees had settled
himself down in this corner of the New World. The Captain

being a regular trafficker in the commodities of the Crow and
Archer, and no whit over-awed by the supremacy of mine hostess,
soon set himself about seducing her worse-half from his allegiance,
so far as was necessary, at least, to satisfy his own cravings for
company at the fort. He therefore freely made himself the
scapegoat of Garret's delinquencies, confiding in the wheedling
power of his tongue to pacify the dame. With all the tapster's
humility and meekness, he still followed the Captain through his
irregularities with the adhesiveness and submission of a dog -
carousing on occasion like a man of stouter mould, and imitating
the reveller-tone of his companion with an ambitious though not
always successful zeal. He did not naturally lack merriment;
but it was not of the boisterous stamp: there was, at his worst
outbreak, a glimmering of deference and respect, rising up to a
rickety laugh, and a song sometimes, yet without violent clamor;
and the salt tears were often wrung from his eyes by the pent-up
laughter which his vocation and his subordinate temper had
taught him it was unseemly to discharge in a volley.

His companion was a tall, sinewy, and grave person, habited
in the guise of a forester - a cap, namely, of undressed deer skin,
a buff jerkin, guarded by a broad belt and buckle at the waist,
and leggings of brown leather. This was a Fleming, named
Arnold de la Grange, who belonged to the corps of wood rangers
in the service of the Lord Proprietary. He had arrived in the
province in the time of Lord Cecilius, many years before, and had
shared much of the toil of the early settlement. His weather-beaten
and gaunt form, tawny cheek, and grizzled hair, bespoke
a man inured to the hard service of a frontier life, whilst his
erect port and firm step evinced that natural gracefulness which
belongs to men trained to the self-dependence necessary to breast
the ever-surrounding perils of such a service. He was a man of
few words, and these were delivered in a Low Dutch accent,

which his long intercourse with the English had failed to correct.
When his service on his range was intermitted, Arnold found
quarters amongst the retainers of the Proprietary mansion, and
the Proprietary himself manifested towards the forester that
degree of trust, and even affection, which resulted from a high
sense of his fidelity and conduct, and which gave him a position
of more privilege than was enjoyed by the other dependents of
the establishment. Being, at these intervals, an idler, he was
looked upon with favor by the Captain of the fort, who was not
slow to profit by the society of such a veteran in the long watches
of a dull afternoon. By a customary consequence, Arnold was
no less esteemed by the publican.

A bluff greeting and short ceremony placed the visitors at
the table, and each, upon a mute signal from the host,
appropriated his cup and pipe.

"You are never a true man, Garret Weasel,"
said the Captain,
"to dally so long behind your appointment; and such
an appointment, too! The round dozen which you lost to me on
Dame Dorothy's head gear - a blessing on it! - you did yourself
so order it, was to be broached at three o'clock; and now it
is something past four. There is culpable laches in it. Idleness
is the canker of the spirit, but occupation is the lard of the body,
as I may affirm in my own person. Mistress Dorothy, I suspect,
has this tardy coming to answer for. I doubt the brow
of our brave dame has been cloudy this afternoon. How is it,
Arnold? bachelor, and Dutchman to boot, you will speak without
fear."

"The woman," replied Arnold, in a
broken English accent,
which I do not attempt to convey in syllables,
"had her suspicions."

"Hold, Captain Dauntrees," eagerly
interrupted the innkeeper,
drawing up his chair to the table - for he had seated himself

a full arm's-length off, in awkward deference to his host; "and
Master Arnold! my wife rules not me, as some evil-minded jesters
report; no, in faith! We were much beset to-day. I could not
come sooner. Customers, you know, Captain, better than most
men, customers must be answered, and will be answered, when
we poor servants go athirst. We were thronged to-day; was
it not so, Arnold?"

"That is true," replied the forester; "the wife had her hands
full as well as Garret himself. There were traders in the port,
to-day, from the Bay Shore and the Isle of Kent, and some from
the country back, to hear whether the brigantine had arrived.
They had got some story that Cocklescraft should be here."

"I see it," said Dauntrees; "that fellow, Cocklescraft, has a
trick of warning his friends. He never comes into port but there
be strange rumors of him ahead; it seems to be told by the pricking
of thumbs. St. Mary's is not the first harbor where he drops
his anchor, nor Anthony Warden the first to docket his cargo.
You understand me."

"You have a bold mind, Captain," said the publican; "you
men of the wars speak your thoughts."

"My wife pays honestly for the liquors," said Weasel, as his
eye glanced timorously from one to the other of his comrades;
"I take no heed of the accounts."

"But the head gear, Garret," rejoined Dauntrees, laughing;
"you pay for that, though the mercer saw my coin for it. Twelve
bottles of Canary were a good return on that venture. The
bauble sits lightly on the head of the dame, and it is but fair
that the winnings should rise as lightly into ours. But for Cocklescraft,
we should lack these means to be merry. The customs
are at a discount on a dark night. Well, be it so. What point

of duty calls on us to baulk the skipper in his trade? We are
of the land, not of the water; consumers, on the disbursing side
of the account, not of the gathering in. The revenue has its
own friends, and we should neither meddle nor make. Worthy
Garret Weasel has good report in the province for the reasonableness
of his wines - and long may he deserve that commendation!"

"I thank heaven that I strive to merit the good will of the
freemen," interrupted the innkeeper.

"And he is something given to brag of his wines. Faith,
and with reason! Spain and Portugal, the Garonne and the
Rhine, are his tributaries. Garret, we know the meridian of
your El Dorado."

"Nay, nay, Master Captain - your worship is merry; I
beseech you -"

"Never mind your beseeching, my modest friend. You
scarce do yourself justice. You have his Lordship's license paid
for in good round ducatoons - and that's the fee of a clear
conscience. So let the trade thrive! The exchequer is not a baby
to be in swaddling bands, unable to feed itself. No, it has the
eagle's claw, and wants no help from thee, thou forlorn tapster!
Make thine honest penny, Garret; all thirsty fellows will stand
by you."

"I would be thought orderly, Master Dauntrees."

"You are so computed - to a fault. You would have been
so reckoned in Lord Cecil's time; and matters are less straitened
now-a-days. Lord Charles gives more play to good living than
his father allowed of. You remember his Lordship's father set
his face against wines and strong waters."

"He did, gentlemen," said Weasel, squaring himself in his
seat with animation. "Heaven forbid I should speak but as
becomes me of the honorable Lord Cecil's memory, or of his

honorable son! but to my cost, I know that his Lordship's father
was no friend to evil courses, or sottish behavior, or drinking,
unless it was in moderation, mark you. But, with humility, I
protest the law is something hard on us poor ordinary keepers:
for you shall understand, Arnold Grange, that at a sale by outcry,
if there should lack wherewithal to pay the debts of the
debtor, the publican and vintner are shut out, seeing that the
score for wines and strong waters is the last to be paid."

"And good law it is, let me tell you, Garret Weasel! Good
and wholesome: wisely laid down by the burgesses, and wisely
maintained by his Lordship. You rail without cause. Sober
habits must be engendered: - your health, comrades! Then it
behooves you publicans to be nice in your custom. We will none
of your lurdans that cannot pay scot and lot - your runagates
that fall under the statute of outcry. Let them drink of the
clear brook! There is wisdom and virtue in the law. Is it not
so, Arnold?"

"It preaches well," replied the forester, as he sent forth a
volume of smoke from his lips.

"Another flask, and we will drink to his Lordship," said
Dauntrees, who now left the table and returned with the fourth
bottle. "Fill up, friends; the evening wears apace. Here's to
his Lordship, and his Lordship's ancestors of ever noble and
happy memory!"

As Dauntrees smacked his lips upon emptying his cup, he
flung himself back in his chair, and in a thoughtful tone
ejaculated: "The good Lord Charles has had a heavy time of it since
his return from England; these church brawlers would lay gunpowder
under our hearth-stones. And then the death of young
Lord Cecil, whilst his father was abroad, too; it was a heavy
blow. My lady has never held up her head since."

trio smoked their pipes in silence, which was at length broken by
an attenuated sigh from the publican, as he exclaimed, "Well-a-day!
the great have their troubles as well as the rest of us. It
is my opinion that Heaven will have its will, Captain; that's my
poor judgment." And having thus disburdened himself of this
weighty sentiment - the weight of it increased, perhaps, by the
pressure of his previous potations - he drained the heel tap, which
stood in his glass, and half whispered, when he had done, "That's
as good a drop of Canary as ever grew within the horizon of the
Peak of Teneriffe."

"Through the good will of friend Cocklescraft," interrupted
Dauntrees, suddenly resuming his former gaiety.

"Pray you, Captain Dauntrees," said the publican, with a
hurried concern, "think what hurt your jest may bring upon me.
Arnold knows not your merry humor, and may believe from your
speech that I am not reputable."

"Pish, man; bridle your foolish tongue! Did I not see the
very cask on't at Trencher Rob's? Did I not mark how your
sallow cheek took on an ashen complexion, when his Lordship's
secretary, a fortnight since, suddenly showed himself amongst the
cedars upon the bank that overlooks your door, when your ill luck
would have you to be rolling the cask in open day into the cellar.
The secretary was in a bookish mood, and did not see you - or,
peradventure, was kind, and would not heed."

To this direct testimony, Weasel could only reply by a faint-hearted
and involuntary smile which surrendered the point, and
left him in a state of silly confusion.

"Never droop in courage, worthy Weasel," exclaimed the
Captain; "you are as honest as your betters; and, to my mind,
the wine has a better smack from its overland journey from St.
Jerome's when there was no sun to heat it."

conversation another direction, "is a worshipful youth, and a modest,
and grows in favor with the townspeople."

"Ay, and is much beloved by his Lordship," added the Captain.

"And comes, I warrant, of gentle kind, though I have not
heard aught of his country or friends. Dorothy, my wife, says
that the women almost swear by him, for his quiet behavior and
pretty words - and they have eyes, Captain Dauntrees, for
excellence which we have not."

"There is a cloud upon his birth," said Dauntrees, "and a
sorrowful tale touching his nurture. I had it from Burton, the
master of the ship who brought him with my Lord to the province."

"Indeed, Captain Dauntrees! you were ever quick to pick
up knowledge. You have a full ear and a good memory."

"Drink, drink, comrades!" said the Captain. "We should
not go dry because the secretary has had mishaps. If it please
you, I will tell the story, though I will not vouch for the truth
of what I have only at second hand."

After the listeners had adjusted themselves in their chairs,
Dauntrees proceeded.

"There was, in Yorkshire, a Major William Weatherby, who
fought against the Parliament - I did not know him, for I was
but a stripling at the time - who, when King Charles was beheaded,
went over and took service with the States General, and at
Arnheim married a lady of the name of Verheyden. Getting
tired of the wars, he came back to England with his wife, where
they lived together five or six years without children. The story
goes that he was a man of fierce and crooked temper; choleric,
and unreasonable in his quarrel; and for jealousy, no devil ever
equalled him in that amiable virtue. It was said, too, that his
living was riotous and unthrifty, which is, in part, the customary
sin of soldiership. - I am frank with you, masters."

"You are a good judge, Captain; you have had experience,"
said the publican.

"There was a man of some mark in the country where this
Weatherby lived, a Sir George Alwin, who, taking pity on the
unhappy lady, did her sundry acts of kindness - harmless acts,
people say; such as you or I, neighbors, would be moved to do
for a distressed female; but the lady was of rare beauty, and the
husband full of foul fancies.

"About this time, it was unlucky that nature wrought a
change, and the lady grew lusty for the first time in six years'
marriage. To make the story short, Weatherby was free with his
dagger, and in the street, at Doncaster, in the midst of a public
show, he stabbed Alwin to the heart."

The wood ranger silently shook his head, and the publican
opened his watery eyes in astonishment.

"By the aid of a fleet horse and private enemies of the murdered
man, Weatherby escaped out of the kingdom, and was never
afterwards heard of."

"And died like a dog, I s'pose," said Arnold de la Grange.

"Likely enough," replied Dauntrees.

"The poor lady was struck down with the horror of the deed,
and had nearly gone to her grave. But Heaven was kind and
she survived it, and was relieved of her burden in the birth of a
son. For some years afterwards, by the bounty of friends, but
with many a struggle - for her means were scanty - she made shift
to dwell in England. At last she returned to Holland, where she
found a resting-place in her native earth, having lived long enough
to see her son, a well grown lad, safely taken in charge by her
brother, a merchant of Antwerp. The parents were both attached
to our Church of Rome, and the son was sent by his uncle to the
Jesuit school of his own city. Misfortune overtook the merchant,
and he died before the nephew had reached his fourteenth year.

But the good priests of Antwerp tended the lad with the care of
parents, and would have reared him as a servant of the altar.
When our Lord Baltimore was in the Netherlands, three years
ago, he found Albert Verheyden (the youth has ever borne his
mother's name) in the Seminary. His Lordship took a liking to
him and brought him into his own service. Master Albert was
then but eighteen. There is the whole story. It is as dry as a
muscat raisin. It sticks in the throat, masters, - so moisten,
moisten!"

"It is a marvellous touching story," said the innkeeper, as he
swallowed at a draught a full goblet.

"The hot hand and the cold steel," said Arnold, thoughtfully,
"hold too much acquaintance in these times. Master Albert is
an honest youth, and a good youth, and a brave follower too, of
hawk or hound, Captain Dauntrees."

"Then there is good reason for a cup to the secretary," said
the Captain filling again. "The world hath many arguments for
a thirsty man. The blight of the year fall upon this sadness!
Let us change our discourse - I would carouse a little, friends: it
is salutary to laugh. Thanks to my patron, I am a bachelor! So
drink, Master Arnold, mein sauff bruder, as we used to say on the
Rhine."

"Ich trinck, euch zu," was the reply of the forester, as he
answered the challenge with a sparkling eye, and a face lit up
with smiles; "a good lad, an excellent lad, though he come of a
hot-brained father."

The wine began to show itself upon the revellers; for by this
time they had nearly got through half of the complement of the
wager. The effect of this potation upon the Captain was to give
him a more flushed brow, and a moister eye, and to administer
somewhat to the volubility of his tongue. It had wrought no
further harm, for Dauntrees was bottle-proof. Upon the forester

it was equally harmless, rather enhancing than dissipating his
saturnine steadfastness of demeanor. He was, perchance, somewhat
more precise and thoughtful. Garret Weasel, of the three, was
the only weak vessel. With every cup of the last half hour he
grew more supple.

"Ads heartlikens!" he exclaimed, "but this wine does tingle,
Captain Dauntrees! Here is a fig for my wife Dorothy!
Come and go as you list - none of your fetch and carry! that's
what the world is coming to, amongst us married cattle!"

"Thou art a valorous tapster," said the Captain.

"I am the man to stand by his friend, Captain; and I am
your friend, Captain - Papist or Roman though they call you!"

"A man for need, Garret!" said Dauntrees, patting him on
the head; "a dozen flasks or so, when a friend wants them, come
without the asking."

"And I pay my wagers, I warrant, Captain, like a true comrade."

"Like a prince, Garret, who does not stop to count the score,
but makes sure of the total by throwing in a handful over."

"I am no puritan, Master Dauntrees."

"You have the port of a cavalier, good Weasel. You would
have done deadly havoc amongst the round-heads, if they but
took you in the fact of discharging a wager. But you were scarce
in debt after this fashion, at Worcester, my valiant drawer. An
evil destiny kept you empty on that day."

"Ha, ha, ha! a shrewd memory for a stale jest, Captain
Dauntrees. The world is slanderous, though I care little for it.
You said you would be merry; shall we not have a song?"

"I am in that humor, old madcap, and will wag it with you
bravely," replied Dauntrees, as he struck up a brisk drinking glee
of that day, in which he was followed by the treble voice of the
publican, who at the same time rose from his seat and accompanied

Whilst Dauntrees and
his gossips were thus occupied in their
carouse, they were interrupted by the unexpected arrival of two
well known persons, who had approached by the path of the
postern gate.

The elder of the two was a youth just on the verge of manhood.
His person was slender, well-proportioned, and rather
over the common height. His face, distinguished by a decided
outline of beauty, wore a thoughtful expression, which was
scarcely overcome by the flash of a black and brilliant eye. A
complexion pale, and even feminine, betokened studious habits.
His dress, remarkable for its neatness, denoted a becoming pride
of appearance in the wearer. It told of the Low Countries. A
well-fitted doublet and hose, of a grave color, were partially
concealed by a short camlet cloak of Vandyke brown. A black
cap and feather, a profusion of dark hair hanging in curls towards
the shoulders, and a falling band or collar of lace, left it
unquestionable that the individual I have sketched was of gentle
nurture, and associated with persons of rank. This was further
manifested in the gay and somewhat gaudy apparel of his companion
- a lad of fourteen, who walked beside him in the profusely
decorated costume of a young noble of that ambitious era, when
the thoughtless and merry monarch of England, instead of giving
himself to the cares of government, was busy to invent
extravagancies of dress. The lad was handsome, though his features
wore the impress of feeble health. He now bore in his hand a
bow and sheaf of arrows.

The visitors had taken our revellers at unawares, and had
advanced within a few feet before they were observed. The
back of the publican was turned to them, and he was now in mid
career of his dance, throwing up his elbows, tossing his head,
and treading daintily upon the earth, as he sang the burden,

Dauntrees started abruptly from his seat, at this accost, smiled
with a reddened brow, and made a low obeisance. The cessation
of the song left Garret Weasel what a mariner would term
"high and dry," for like a bark floated upon a beach and
suddenly bereft of its element, he remained fixed in the attitude at
which the music deserted him, - one foot raised, an arm extended,
and his face turned inquiringly over his shoulder. His amazement
upon discovering the cause of this interruption, brought
about a sudden and ludicrous affectation of sobriety; in an
instant his port was changed into one of deference, although
somewhat awkwardly overcharged with what was intended to
represent gravity and decorum.

Arnold de la Grange rose from his chair and stood erect, firm
and silent.

gate of the fort. In a moment young Benedict Leonard came
running back, and addressed the forester -

"Master Arnold, I would have a new bow-string - this is
worn; and my bird-bolts want feathering: shall I leave them
with you, good Arnold?" And without waiting an answer, he
thrust the bow and arrows into the smiling wood-ranger's hand,
and bounded away again through the gate.

Dauntrees flung his sword-belt across his shoulder, put on his
cloak, delayed a moment to secure the remaining flasks of wine,
and then beckoned to the ranger to follow him.

"Stop," cried Weasel, with an officious zeal to make himself
useful; "your belt is awry: it is not comely to be seen by his
Lordship in this slovenly array."

The belt was set right, and the two directed their steps towards
the posters, and thence to the mansion. The publican
tarried only until his companions were out of sight, when, curious
to know the object of the errand, and careful to avoid the
appearance of intrusion, he followed upon the same path, at a
respectful distance, - stepping wisely, as a drunken man is wont, and full
of the opinion that his sobriety was above all suspicion.

CHAPTER IV.

Oft
as the peasant wight impelled
To
these untrodden paths had been,
As
oft he, horror struck, beheld
Thing
of unearthly shape and mien.
GLENGONAR'S
WASSAIL.

THE day was drawing
near to a close, and the Proprietary
thoughtfully paced the hall. The wainscoted walls around him
were hung with costly paintings, mingled, not untastefully, with
Indian war clubs, shields, bows and arrows, and other trophies
won from the savage. There were also the ponderous antlers of
the elk and the horns of the buck sustaining draperies of the
skins of beasts of prey. Muskets, cutlasses and partisans were
bestowed on brackets ready for use in case of sudden invasion
from that race of wild men whose stealthy incursions in times
past had taught this policy of preparation. The level rays of
the setting sun, striking through the broad open door, flung a
mellow radiance over the hall, giving a rich picture-like tone to
its sylvan furniture.

Lord Baltimore, at the period when I have introduced him,
might have been verging upon fifty. He was of a delicate and
slender stature, with a grave and dignified countenance. His
manners were sedate and graceful, and distinguished by that
gentleness which is characteristic of an educated mind when
chastened by affliction. He had been schooled to this gentleness both
by domestic and public griefs. The loss of a favorite son, about

two years before, had thrown a shadow upon his spirit, and a
succession of unruly political irritations in the province served to
prevent return of that buoyancy of heart which is indifferently
slow to come back at middle age, even when solicited by health,
fortune, friends, and all the other incitements which, in younger
men, are wont to lift up a wounded spirit out of the depths of a
casual sorrow.

Charles Calvert had come to the province in 1662, and from
that date, until the death of his father, thirteen years afterwards,
administered the government in the capacity of Lieutenant-General.
Upon his accession to the proprietary rights, he found
himself compelled by the intrigues of a faction to visit London,
where he was detained nearly four years, - having left Lady
Baltimore, with a young family of children, behind him, under
the care of his uncle Philip Calvert, the chancellor of the province.
He had now, within little more than a twelvemonth, returned
to his domestic roof, to mingle his sorrows with those of
his wife for the death of his eldest son, Cecilius, who had sunk
into the tomb during his absence.

The public cares of his government left him scant leisure to
dwell upon his personal afflictions. The province was surrounded
by powerful tribes of Indians who watched the white settlers with
an eager hostility, and seized every occasion to molest them by
secret inroad, and often by open assault. A perpetual war of
petty reprisals prevailed upon the frontier, and even sometimes
invaded the heart of the province.

A still more vexatious annoyance existed in the party divisions
of the inhabitants divisions unluckily resting on religious
distinctions - the most fierce of all dissensions. Ever since the
Restoration, the jealousy of the Protestant subjects of the crown
against the adherents of the Church of Rome had been growing
into a sentiment that finally broke forth into the most flagrant

persecution. In the province, the Protestants during the last
twenty years had greatly increased in number, and at the date of
this narrative constituted already the larger mass of the population.
They murmured against the dominion of the Proprietary
as one adverse to the welfare of the English Church; and intrigues
were set on foot to obtain the establishment of that church in the
province through the interest of the ministry in England. Letters
were written by some of the more ambitious clergy of Maryland
to the archbishop of Canterbury to invoke his aid in the enterprise.
The government of Lord Baltimore was traduced in these
representations, and every disorder attributed to the ascendancy of
the Papists. It was even affirmed that the Proprietary, and his
uncle the Chancellor, had instigated the Indians to ravage the
plantations of the Protestant settlers, and to murder their families.
Chiefly, to counteract these intrigues, Lord Baltimore had
visited the court at London. Cecilius Calvert, the founder of the
province, with a liberality as wise as it was unprecedented, had
erected his government upon a basis of perfect religious freedom.
He did this at a time when he might have incorporated his own
faith with the political character of the colony, and maintained it,
by a course of legislation which would, perhaps, even up to the
present day, have rendered Maryland the chosen abode of those
who now acknowledge the founder's creed. His views, however,
were more expansive. It was his design to furnish in Maryland
a refuge not only to the weary and persecuted votaries of his own
sect, but an asylum to all who might wish for shelter in a land where
opinion should be free and conscience undisturbed. Whilst this plant
of toleration was yet young, it grew with a healthful luxuriance;
but the popular leaders, who are not always as truly and consistently
attached to enlightened freedom as we might be led to believe
from their boasting, and who incessantly aim to obtain power
and make it felt, had no sooner acquired strength to battle with

the Proprietary than they rooted up the beautiful exotic and gave
it to the winds.

Amongst the agitators in this cause was a man of some note
in the former history of the province - the famous Josias Fendall,
the governor in the time of the protectorate - now in a green old
age, whose turbulent temper, and wily propensity to mischief had
lost none of their edge with the approach of gray hairs. This
individual had stimulated some of the hot spirits of the province into
open rebellion against the life of the Proprietary and his uncle.
His chief associate was John Coode, a coarse but shrewd leader
of a faction, who, with the worst inclinations against the Proprietary,
had the wit to avoid the penalties of the law, and to maintain
himself in a popular position as a member of the house of
Burgesses. Fendall, a few months before this era, had been
arrested with several followers, upon strong proofs of conspiracy, and
was now a close prisoner in the jail.

Such is a brief but necessary view of the state of affairs on
the date, at which I have presented the Lord Proprietary to my
reader. The matter now in hand with the captain of the fort had
reference to troubles of inferior note to those which I have just
recounted.

When Lord Baltimore descried Captain Dauntrees and the
ranger approaching the mansion from the direction of the fort, he
advanced beyond the threshold to meet them. In a moment they
stood unbonneted before him.

"God save you, good friends!" was his salutation - "Captain
Dauntrees and worthy Arnold, welcome! - Cover," - he added in
a tone of familiar kindness, - "put on your hats; these evening
airs sometimes distil an ague upon a bare head."

A rugged smile played upon the features of the old forester
as he resumed his shaggy cap, and said, "Lord Charles is good;
but he does not remember that the head of an old ranger gets his

blossoms like the dog-wood, - in the wind and the rain: - the dew
sprinkles upon it the same as upon a stone."

"Old friend," replied the Proprietary, - "that grizzly head
has taken many a sprinkling in the service of my father and
myself: it is worthy of a better bonnet, and thou shalt have one,
Arnold - the best we can find in the town. Choose for yourself, and
Master Verheyden shall look to the cost of it."

The Fleming modestly bowed, as he replied with that peculiar
foreign gesture and accent, neither of which may be described, -
"Lord Charles is good. - He is the son of his father, Lord Cecil,
- Heaven bless his memory!"

"I have matter for your vigilance, Captain," replied the
Proprietary. "Walk with me in the garden - we will talk over our
business in the open air."

When they had strolled some distance, Lord Baltimore proceeded
- "There are strange tales afloat touching certain mysterious
doings in a house at St. Jerome's: the old wives will have
it that it is inhabited by goblins and mischievous spirits - and, it
truth, wiser people than old women are foolish enough to hold it in
dread. Father Pierre tells me he can scarcely check this terror."

"Your Lordship means the fisherman's house on the beach at
St. Jerome's," said the Captain. "The country is full of stories
concerning it, and it has long had an ill fame. I know the house:
the gossips call it The Wizard's Chapel. It stands hard by the
hut of The Cripple. Truly, my Lord, he who wanders there at
nightfall has need of a clear shrift."

"You give credence to these idle tales?"

"No idle tales, an please your Lordship. Some of these
marvels have I witnessed with my own eyes. There is a curse of
blood upon that roof."

"I pray you speak on," said the Proprietary, earnestly;
"there is more in this than I dreamed of."

"Paul Kelpy, the fisherman," continued Dauntrees, - "it was
before my coming into the province - but the story goes -"

"It was in the Lord Cecil's time - I knowed the fisherman,"
interrupted Arnold.

"He was a man," said the Captain, "who, as your Lordship
may have heard, had a name which caused him to be shunned in his
time, - and they are active now who can tell enough of his wickedness
to make one's hair rise on end. He dwelt in this house at
St. Jerome's in Clayborne's day, and took part with that freebooter;
- went with him, as I have heard, to the Island, and was
outlawed."

"Ay, and returning, met the death he deserved - I remember
the story," said the Proprietary. "He was foiled in his attempt
to get out of the province, and barred himself up in his own
house."

"And there he fought like a tiger, - or more like a devil as
he was," added the ranger. "They were more than two days
before they could get into his house."

"When his door was forced at last," continued the Captain,
"they found him, his wife and child, lying in their own blood upon
the hearth-stone. They were all murdered, people say, by his own
hand."

"And that was true!" added Arnold; "I remember how he
was buried at the cross road, below the Mattapany Fort, with a
stake drove through his body."

"Ever since that time," continued Dauntrees, "they say the
house has been without lodgers - of flesh and blood, I mean, my
Lord, - for it has become a devil's den, and a busy one."

returning with Clayton, the master of the collector's pinnace, from
the Isle of Kent; we stood in, after night, towards the headland
of St. Jerome's bay, - it was very dark - and the four windows
of the Wizard's Chapel, that looked across the beach, were lighted
up with such a light as I have never seen from candle or faggot.
And there were antic figures passing the blaze that seemed deep
in some hellish carouse. We kept our course, until we got almost
close aboard, - when suddenly all grew dark. There came, at
that moment, a gust of wind such as the master said he never
knew to sweep in daylight across the Chesapeake. It struck us
in our teeth, and we were glad to get out again upon the broad
water. It would seem to infer that the Evil One had service
rendered there, which it would be sinful to look upon. In my poor
judgment it is matter for the church, rather than for the hand of
the law."

"You are not a man, Captain Dauntrees, to be lightly
moved by fantasies," said the Proprietary, gravely; "you have
good repute for sense and courage. I would have you weigh
well what you report."

"Surely, my Lord, Clayton is as stout a man in heart
as any in the province: and yet he could scarcely hold his
helm for fear."

"Why was I not told of this?"

"Your Lordship's favor," replied Dauntrees, shaking his
head; "neither the master, the seamen nor myself would hazard
ill will by moving in the matter. There is malice in these
spirits, my Lord, which will not brook meddling in their doings:
we waited until we might be questioned by those who had
right to our answer. The blessed martyrs shield me! I am
pledged to fight your Lordship's bodily foes: - the good priests
of our holy patron St. Ignatius were better soldiers for this
warfare."

The Proprietary remained for some moments silent; at last,
turning to the ranger, he inquired - "What dost thou know of
this house, Arnold?"

"Well, Lord Charles," replied the veteran, "I was not
born to be much afear'd of goblins or witches. In my ranging
I have more than once come in the way of these wicked spirits;
and then I have found that a clean breast and a stout heart,
with the help of an Ave Mary and a Paternoster was more
than a match for all their howlings. But the fisherman's house
- oh, my good Lord Charles," he added with a portentous
shrug, "has dwellers in it that it is best not to trouble. When
Sergeant Travers and myself were ranging across by St.
Jerome's, at that time when Tiquassino's men were thought
to be a thieving, - last Hallowmass, if I remember, - we shot
a doe towards night, and sat down in the woods, waiting
to dress our meat for a supper, which kept us late, before
we mounted our horses again. But we had some aqua vitæ,
and didn't much care for hours. So it was midnight, with
no light but the stars to show us our way. It happened
that we rode not far from the Wizard's Chapel, which put
us to telling stories to each other about Paul Kelpy and
the ghosts that people said haunted his house."

"The aqua vitæ made you talkative as well as valiant,
Arnold," interrupted the Proprietary.

"I will not say that," replied the ranger; "but something
put it into our heads to go down the bank and ride round
the chapel. At first all was as quiet as if it had been our
church here of St. Mary's - except that our horses snorted
and reared with fright at something we could not see. The
wind was blowing, and the waves were beating on the shore,
and suddenly we began to grow cold; and then, all at once,
there came a rumbling noise inside of the house like the

rolling of a hogshead full of pebbles, and afterwards little
flashes of light through the windows, and the sergeant said
he heard clanking chains and groans: - it isn't worth while
to hide it from your Lordship, but the sergeant ran away
like a coward, and I followed him like another, Lord Charles.
Since that night I have not been near the Black House. We
have an old saying in my country - 'een gebrande kat vreest
het koude water' - the scalded cat keeps clear of cold water -
ha, I mind the proverb ."

"It is not long ago," said Dauntrees, - "perhaps not above
two years, - when, they say, the old sun-dried timber of the
building turned suddenly black. It was the work of a single
night - your Lordship shall find it so now."

"I can witness the truth of it," said Arnold - "the house
was never black until that night, and now it looks as if
it was scorched with lightning from roof to ground sill. And
yet, lightning could never leave it so black without burning
it to the ground."

"There is some trickery in this," said the Proprietary.
"It may scarce be accounted for on any presence of witchcraft,
or sorcery, although I know there are malignant influences
at work in the province, which find motive enough to do
all the harm they can. Has Kendall, or any of his confederates,
had commerce with this house, Captain Dauntrees? Can you
suspect such intercourse?"

"Assuredly not, my Lord," replied the Captain, "for
Marshall, who is the most insolent of that faction, has, to
my personal knowledge, the greatest dread of the chapel of all
other men I have seen. Besides, these terrors have flourished
in the winter-night tales of the neighborhood, ever since the
death of Kelpy, and long before the Fendalls grew so pestilent
in the province."

"It is the blood of the fisherman, my good Lord, and
of his wife and children, that stains the floor," said Arnold;
"it is that blood which brings the evil spirits together about
the old hearth. Twice every day the blood-spots upon the
floor freshen and grow strong, as the tide comes to flood; -
at the ebb they may be hardly seen."

"You have witnessed this yourself, Arnold?"

"At the ebb, Lord Charles. I did not stay for the change
of tide. When I saw the spots it was as much as we could
do to make them out. But at the flood every body says
they are plain."

"It is a weighty matter, a very weighty matter, an it
like your Lordship's honor," muttered forth the slim voice
of Garret Weasel, who had insinuated himself, by slow
approach, into the rear of the company, near enough to hear
a part of this conversation, and who now fancied that his
interest in the subject would ensure him an unrebuked access
to the Proprietary - "and your Lordship hath a worthy care
for the fears of the poor people touching the abominations
of the Wizard's Chapel."

"What brought thee here, Garret Weasel?" inquired the
Proprietary, as he turned suddenly upon the publican and
looked him steadfastly in the face - "What wonder hast thou
to tell to excuse thy lurking at our heels?"

"Much and manifold, our most noble Lord, touching the
rumors," replied the confused innkeeper, with a thick utterance.
"And it is the most notable thing about it that Robert Swale
- Rob o' the Trencher as he is commonly called - your Lordship
apprehends I mean the Cripple - that Rob lives so near the
Wizard's Chapel. There's matter of consideration in that - if
your Lordship will weigh it."

thy cups. I grieve to see thee making a beast of thyself. You
had a name for sobriety. Look that you lose it not again.
Captain Dauntrees, if the publican has been your guest this
evening, you are scarce free of blame for this."

"He has a shallow head, my Lord, and it is more easily
sounded than I guessed. Arnold," said Dauntrees apart,
"persuade the innkeeper home."

The ranger took Garret's arm, and expostulating with him
as he led him away, dismissed him at the gate with an admonition
to bear himself discreetly in the presence of his wife - a hint
which seemed to have a salutary effect, as the landlord was seen
shaping his course with an improved carriage towards the town.

"Have you reason to believe, Captain Dauntrees," said the
Proprietary, after Weasel had departed, "that the Cripple gives
credit to these tales. He lives near this troubled house?"

"Not above a gunshot off, my Lord. He cannot but be
witness to these marvels. But he is a man of harsh words, and
lives to himself. There is matter in his own life, I should guess,
which leaves but little will to censure these doings. To a
certainty he has no fear of what may dwell in the Black
building. I have seldom spoken with him."

"Your report and Arnold's," said the Proprietary, "confirm
the common rumor. I have heard today, that two nights past
some such phantoms as you speak of have been seen, and deemed
it at first a mere gossip's wonder; - but what you tell gives a
graver complexion of truth to these whisperings. Be there
demons or jugglers amongst us - and I have reason to suspect
both - this matter must be sifted. I would have the inquiry
made by men who are not moved by the vulgar love of marvel.
This duty shall be yours, friends. Make suitable preparation,
Captain, to discharge it at your earliest leisure. I would have
you and Arnold, with such discreet friends as you may select,

visit this spot at night and observe the doings there. Look that
you keep your own counsel: - we have enemies of flesh and blood
that may be more dreaded than these phantoms. So, God
speed you, friends!"

"The man who purges the Black House of the fiend, so
please you, my Lord," said Dauntrees, "should possess more
odor of sanctity than I doubt will be found under our soldier's
jerkins. I shall nevertheless execute your Lordship's orders to
the letter."

"Hark you, Captain," said the Proprietary, as his visitors
were about to take their leave, "if you have a scruple in this
matter and are so inclined, I would have you confer with Father
Pierre. Whether this adventure require prayer, or weapon of
steel, you shall judge for yourself."

"I shall take it, my Lord, as a point of soldiership," said
Dauntrees, "to be dealt with in soldierly fashion - that is, with
round blows if occasion serves. I ask no aid from our good
priest. He has a trick - if I may be so bold as to speak it
before your Lordship - which does not so well sort with my age
and bodily health - a trick, my Lord, of putting one to a fasting
penance by way of purification. Our purpose of visiting the
Black House would be unseasonably delayed by such a purgation."

"As you will!" said the Proprietary, laughing; "Father
Pierre would have but an idle sinecure if he had no other calling
but to bring you to your penitentiary. Good even, friends -
may the kind saints be with you!"

The Captain and his comrade now turned their steps toward
the fort, and the Proprietary retired into the mansion. Here
he found the secretary and Benedict Leonard waiting his arrival.
They had just returned from the town, whither they had gone
after doing their errand to the fort. Albert Verheyden bore a

packet secured with silken strings and sealed, which he delivered
to the Proprietary.

"Dick Pagan, the courier," he said, "has just come in from
James Town in Virginia, whence he set forth but four days ago
- he has had a hard ride of it - and brought this packet to the
sheriff for my Lord. The courier reports that a ship had just
arrived from England, and that Sir Henry Chichely the governor
gave him this for your Lordship to be delivered without delay."

The Proprietary took the packet: "Albert," he said, as he
was about to withdraw, "I have promised the old ranger,
Arnold de la Grange, a new cap. Look to it: - get him the
best that you may find in the town - or, perhaps, it would better
content him to have one made express by Cony the
leatherdresser. Let it be as it may best please the veteran himself,
good Albert." With this considerate remembrance of the
ranger, Lord Baltimore withdrew into his study.

CHAPTER V.

-
deep on his front engraven,
Deliberation
sat, and public care.
MILTON.

A SMALL fire blazed on
the hearth of the study and mingled its
light with that of a silver cresses, which hung from the ceiling
above a table furnished with writing materials and strewed over
with papers. Here the Proprietary sat intent upon the perusal
of the packet. Its contents disquieted him; and with increasing
solicitude he again and again read over the letters.

At length the secretary was summoned into his presence.
"Albert," he said, "the council must be called together
to-morrow at noon. The messengers should be despatched to-night;
they have a dark road and far to ride. Let them be ready with
the least delay."

The secretary bowed, and went forth to execute his order.

The letters brought to the Proprietary a fresh importation
of troubles. That which most disturbed him was from the Board
of Trade and Plantations, and spoke authoritatively of the
growing displeasure of the ministry at the exclusiveness, as it was
termed, of the Proprietary's favors, in the administration of his
government, to the Catholic inhabitants of the province; it
hinted at the popular and probably well-founded discontent - to

use its own phrase - of his Majesty's Protestant subjects against
the too liberal indulgence shown to the Papists; repeated stale
charges and exploded calumnies against the Proprietary, with an
earnestness that showed how sedulously his enemies had taken
advantage of the disfavor into which the Church of Rome and
its advocates had fallen since the Restoration; and concluded
with a peremptory intimation of the royal pleasure that all the
offices of the province should be immediately transferred into the
hands of the Church of England party.

This was a blow at Lord Baltimore which scarcely took him
by surprise. His late visit to England had convinced him that
not all the personal partiality of the monarch for his family - and
this was rendered conspicuous in more than one act of favor at a
time when the Catholic lords were brought under the ban of
popular odium - would be able finally to shelter the province
from that religious proscription which already was rife in the
mother land. He was not, therefore, altogether unprepared to
expect this assault. The mandate was especially harsh in
reference to the Proprietary, first because it was untrue that he had
ever recognized the difference of religious opinion in his appointments,
but on the contrary had conferred office indiscriminately
in strict and faithful accordance with the fundamental principle
of toleration upon which his government was founded; and,
secondly, because it would bear with pointed injustice upon some
of his nearest and most devoted friends - his uncle the chancellor,
the whole of his council, and, above all others in whose welfare
he took an interest, upon the collector of the port of St. Mary's,
Anthony Warden, an old inhabitant of the province, endeared to
the Proprietary - and indeed to all his fellow burgesses - by long
friendship and tried fidelity. What rendered it more grating to
the feelings of the Proprietary in this instance, was that the
collectorship had already been singled out as a prize to be played

for by that faction which had created the late disturbances it
the province. It was known that Coode had set his eyes upon
this lure, and gloated upon it with the gaze of a serpent. The
emoluments of the post were something considerable, and its
importance was increased by the influence it was supposed to
confer on the incumbent, as a person of weight and consequence
in the town.

The first expression of irritation which the perusal of the packet
brought to the lips of the Proprietary had a reference to the
collector. "They would have me," he said, as he rose and strode
through the apartment, "discard from my service the very approved
friends with whom in my severest toils, in this wilderness,
I have for so many years buffeted side by side, and to whom I am
most indebted for support and encouragement amidst the thousand
disasters of my enterprise. They would have me turn adrift,
without a moment's warning, and even with circumstances of
disgrace, that tried pattern of honesty, old Anthony Warden. Virtue,
in her best estate, has but a step-daughter's portion in the
division of this world's goods, and often goes begging, when
varnished knavery carries a high head and proud heart; and lords it
like a very king. By the blessed light! old Anthony shall not
budge on my motion. Am I to be schooled in my duty by
rapacious malcontents, and to be driven to put away my trustiest
friends, to make room for such thirsty leeches and coarse rufflers
as John Coode? The argument is, that here, in what my father
would have made a peaceful, contented land, planted by him and
the brothers of his faith, - with the kindest, best and most
endeared supporters of that faith by my side - worthy men, earnest
and zealous to do their duty - they and their children true to
every Christian precept - men who have won a home by valor and
patient, wise endurance - they must all be disenfranchised, as not
trustworthy even for the meanest office, and give their places to

brawlers, vaporing bullies and factious stirrers up of discord - and
that, too, in the name of religion! Oh, this viper of intolerance,
how has it crept in and defiled the garden! One would have
thought this world were wide enough to give the baser passions
elbow room, without rendering our little secluded nook a theatre
for the struggle. Come what may, Anthony Warden shall not
lack the collectorship whilst a shred of my prerogative remains
untorn!"

In this strain of feeling the Proprietary continued to chafe his
spirit, until the necessity of preparing the letters which were to
urge the attendance of his council, drew him from his fretful
reverie into a calmer tone of mind.

In the servant's hall there was an unusual stir occasioned by
the preparations which were in train for the outriding of the
messengers whom the secretary had put in requisition for the service
of the night. The first of these was Derrick Brown, a man of
stout mould though somewhat advanced in years. He held in the
establishment what might be termed the double post of master of
the mews and keeper of the fox hounds, being principal falconer
and huntsman of the household. The second was a short, plump
little fellow, bearing the name of John Alward, who was one of
the grooms of the stable. These two, now ready booted, belted
and spurred, were seated on a bench, discussing a luncheon, with
the supplement of a large jack or tankard of brown bastard.
Several of the other domestics loitered in the hall, throwing in
occasionally a word of advice to the riders, or giving them unsolicited
aid in the carnal occupation of bodily reinforcement to which they
were devoting themselves with the lusty vigor of practised
trenchermen. Leaning against the jamb of the ample fireplace,
immediately below a lamp which tipped the prominent points of his
grave visage with a sharp light, stood an old Indian, of massive
figure and swarthy hue, named Pamesack, or, as he was called in

the English translation of the Indian word, The Knife. This
personage had been, for some years past, at intervals, a privileged
inmate of the Proprietary's family, and was now, though consigned
to a portion of the duties of the evening, apparently an unconcerned
spectator of the scene around him. He smoked his pipe
in silence, or if he spoke, it was seldom more than in the short
monosyllable characteristic of the incommunicative habits of his
tribe.

"When I saw Dick Pagan, the James Town courier, coming
into town this evening with his leather pouch slung across his
shoulder," said the elder of the riders, "I guessed as much as that
there would be matter for the council. News from that quarter
now-a-days is apt to bring business for their worships. I warrant
the brother of Master Fendall has been contriving an outcome in
Virginia. I heard John Rye, the miller of St. Clements, say last
Sunday afternoon, that Samuel Fendall had forty mounted men
ready in the forest to do his bidding with broadsword and carbine.
And he would have done it too, if my Lord had not laid
him by the heels at unawares. He has a savage spite against my
Lord and the Chancellor both."

"But knew you ever the like before," said John Alwald,
"that his Lordship should be in such haste to see their worships,
he must needs have us tramping over the country at midnight?
There must be a hot flavor in the news! It was a post-haste
letter."

"Tush, copperface! What have you to do with the flavor
of the news? You have little to complain of, John Alward, for
a midnight tramp. It is but twelve miles from this to Mattapany,
and your errand is done. You may be snoozing on a good
truss of hay in Master Sewall's stable before midnight, if you make
speed. Think of my ride all the way to Notley Hall, - and round
about by the head of the river too - for I doubt if I have any

chance to get a cast over the ferry to-night. Tom Taylor, the
boat keeper, is not often sober at this hour: and if he was, a
crustier churl - the devil warm his pillow! - doesn't live 'twixt
this and the old world. He gets out of his sleep for no man."

"But it is a dark road mine," replied the groom. "A plague
upon it! I have no stomach for this bush and brier work, when
a man can see the limb of a tree no more than a cobweb."

"A dark road!" exclaimed the master of the kennels, laughing.
"A dark road, John! It is a long time since there has
been a dark road for your night rides, with that nose shining like
a lighted link a half score paces ahead. It was somewhat
deadened last September, I allow, when you had the marsh ague, and
the doctor fed you for a week on gruel - but it has waxed lately
as bright as ever. I wish I could buckle it to my head-strap
until to-morrow morning."

A burst of laughter, at this sally, which rang through the hall,
testified the effect of the falconer's wit and brought the groom to
his feet.

" 'S blood, you grinning fools!" he ejaculated, "haven't you
heard Derrick's joke a thousand times before, that you must toss
up your scurvy ha-haws at it, as if it was new! He stole it - as
the whole hundred knows - from the fat captain, old Dauntrees
in the fort there; who would have got it back upon hue and cry,
if it had been his own; - but the truth is, the Captain filched it
from a play-book, as the surveyor told him in my hearing at
Garret Weasel's, where the Captain must needs have it for a
laughing matter."

"It is a joke that burns fresh every night!" replied Derrick;
"a lining to make light of. So, tip with the bottom of the pot,
boy, and feed it with mother's milk it will stand you in stead
to-night. Well done, John Alward! I can commend you for taking
a jest as well as another."

"Master Derrick," said the other, "this is not the way to do
his Lordship's bidding: if we must go, we should be jogging now.
I would I had your ride to take, instead of my own, - short as
you think it."

"Ha, say you that! You shall have it, an it please Master
Secretary! But upon one condition."

"Upon what condition?"

"That you tell me honestly why you would choose to ride
twenty miles to Notley rather than twelve to Mattapany."

"Good Derrick," answered the groom, "it is but as a matter
of horsemanship. You have a broader road, and mine is a path
much beset with brushwood. I like not the peril of being unhorsed."

"There is a lie in your face, John Alward; the Mattapany
road is the broadest and best of the two - is it not so, Pamesack!"

"It is the first that was opened by the white man," replied
the Indian; "and more people pass upon it than the other."

"John," said the falconer, "you are a coward. I will not put
you to the inventing another lie, but will wager I can tell you at
one guess why you would change with me."

"Out with it, Master Derrick!" exclaimed the bystanders.

"Oh, out with it!" repeated John Alward; "I heed not your
gibes."

"You fear the cross road," said the falconer; "you will not
pass the fisherman's grave."

"In troth, masters, I must needs own," replied the groom,
"that I have qualms. I never was ashamed to tell the truth, and
confess that I am so much of a sinner as to feel an honest fear of
the devil and his doings. I have known a horse to start and a
rider to be flung at the cross road before now: - there are times
in the night when both horse and rider may see what it turns

"You have honestly confessed, like a brave man, that you
are a coward, John Alward; and so it shall be a bargain between
us. I will take your message. I fear not Paul Kelpy - he has
been down with that stake through his body, ever too fast to walk
abroad."

"There's my hand to it," said the groom, "and thanks to
boot. I am no coward, Derrick, - but have an infirmity which
will not endure to look by-night, in the lonesome woods, upon a
a spirit which walks with a great shaft through it. Willy of the
Flats saw it, in that fashion, as he went home from the Viewer's
feast on the eve of St. Agnes."

"Willy had seen too much of the Viewer's hollands that
night," said Derrick; "and they are spirits worth a dozen Paul
Kelpys, even if the whole dozen were trussed upon the same stake,
like herrings hung up to smoke. In spite of the fisherman and
his bolt, I warrant you I pass unchallenged betwixt this and
Mattapany."

The secretary, soon after this, entered the hall and confirmed
the arrangements which had just been made. He accordingly
delivered the letters intended for Colonel Talbot and Nicholas
Sewall to the falconer, and that for Mr. Notley, the late lieutenant
general of the province, to John Alward. To the Indian was
committed the duty of bearing the missions to such members of
the council as resided either in the town or within a few miles of
it. Holding it matter of indifference whether he despatched this
duty by night or by day, The Knife took it in hand at once, and
set forth, on foot, with a letter for Colonel Digges, who lived
about five miles off, at the same time that the other two couriers
mounted their horses for their lonesome journeys through the
forest.

CHAPTER VI.

If
we should wait till you, in solemn council,
With
due deliberation, had selected
The
smallest out of four and twenty evils,
I'
faith we should wait long.
Dash
and through with it - that's the better watchword,
Then
after, come what may come.
PICCOLOMINI.

ON the following day,
the council, consisting of some four or
five gentlemen, were assembled at the Proprietary Mansion.
About noon their number was rendered complete, by the arrival
of Colonel George Talbot, who, mounted on a spirited, milk-white
steed that smoked with the hot vigor of his motion, dashed through
the gate and alighted at the door. A pair of pistols across his
saddle-bow, and a poniard, partially disclosed under his vest,
demonstrated the precautions of the possessor to defend himself against
sudden assault, and no less denoted the quarrelsome aspect of the
times. His frame was tall, athletic, and graceful; his eye hawk-like,
and his features prominent and handsome, at the same time
indicative of quick temper and rash resolve. There was in his
dress a manifestation of the consciousness of a good figure - it was
the costume of a gallant of the times; and his bearing was characteristic
of a person accustomed to bold action and gay companionship.

Talbot was a near kinsman of the Baltimore family, and
besides being a member of the Proprietary's council, he held the

post of surveyor general, and commanded, also, the provincial
militia on the northern frontier, including the settlements on the
Elk River, where he owned a large manor, upon which he usually
resided. At the present time he was in the temporary occupation
of a favorite seat of the Proprietary, at Mattapany, on the
Patuxent, whither the late summons had been despatched to call
him to the council.

This gentleman was a zealous Catholic, and an ardent personal
friend of his kinsman, the Proprietary, whose cause he
advocated with that peremptory and, most usually, impolitic
determination which his imperious nature prompted, and which
served to draw upon him the peculiar hatred of Fendall and
Coode, and their partisans. He was thus, although a sincere, it
may be imagined, an indiscreet adviser in state affairs, little
qualified to subdue or allay that jealous spirit of proscription
which, from the epoch of the Protectorate down to this date, had
been growing more intractable in the province.

Such was the individual who now, with the firm stride and
dauntless carriage of a belted and booted knight of chivalry,
to which his picturesque costume heightened the resemblance,
entered the apartment where his seniors were already convened.

"Well met!" he exclaimed, as he flung his hat and gloves
upon a table and extended his hand to those who were nearest
him. "How fares it, gentlemen? What devil of mutiny is
abroad now? Has that pimpled fellow of fustian, that swiller
of the leavings of a tap room, the worshipful king of the
Burgesses, master Jack Coode, got drunk again and begun to bully
in his cups? The falconer who hammered at my door last night
as if he would have beaten your Lordship's house about my ears,
could tell me nothing of the cause of this sudden convocation,
save that Driving Dick had come in hot haste from James Town

with letters that had set the mansion here all agog, from his
Lordship’s closet down to the scullery."

"With proper abatement for the falconer's love of gossip,"
said the Proprietary, "he told you true. The letters are there
on the table. When you have read them, you will see that with
good reason I might make some commotion in my house."

Talbot ran his eye over the papers. "Well, and well - an
old story!" he said, as he threw one letter aside and took up
another. "Antichrist - the Red Lady of Babylon - the Jesuits
- and the devil: we have had it so often that the lecture is
somewhat stale. The truculent Papists are the authors of all
evil! We had the Geneva band in fashion for a time; but that
wore out with old Noll. And then comes another fight of
kestrels, and we must have the thirty-nine articles served up for
a daily dish. That spider, Master Yeo, has grown to be a crony
of his grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, and is busy to knit
his web around every poor Catholic fly of the province."

"This must be managed without temper," said Darnall, the
oldest member present, except the Chancellor. "Our adversaries
will find their advantage in our resolves, if made in the heat of
passion."

"You say true," replied Talbot. "I am a fool in my humor;
but it moves me to the last extremity of endurance to be ever
goaded with this shallow and hypocritical presence of sanctity.
They prate of the wickedness of the province, forsooth! our evil
deportment, and loose living, and notorious scandal! All will be
cured, in the opinion of these solemn Pharisees, by turning that
good man, Lord Charles, and his friends out of his own province,
and by setting up parson Yeo in a fat benefice under the wing
of an established church."

"Read on," said Lord Baltimore, "and you shall see the sum
of all, in the argument that it is not fit Papists should bear rule

over the free-born subjects of the English crown; and, as a
conclusion to that, a summary order to discharge every friend of
our church from my employ."

Talbot read the letter to the end.

"So be it!" he ejaculated, as he throw the letter from him,
and flung himself back into his chair. "You will obey this high
behest? With all humbleness we will thank these knaves for
their many condescensions, and their good favors. Your uncle,
the Chancellor here, our old frosted comrade, is the first that
your Lordship will give bare-headed to the sky. As for myself,
I have been voted an incarnate devil in a half dozen conclaves -
and so Fendall shall be the surveyor. I hope your Lordship will
remember that I have a military command - a sturdy stronghold
in the fort of Christina - and some stout fellows with me on the
border. It might be hard to persuade them to part company
with me."

"Peace, I pray you, peace!" interrupted the Proprietary;
"you are nettled, Talbot, and that is not the mood for counsel."

"These pious cut-throats here," said Talbot, "who talk of
our degeneracy, slander us to the whole world: and, faith, I am
not of the mind to bear it! I speak plainly what I have thought
long since - and would rather do than speak. I would arrest
the ringleaders upon a smaller scruple of proof than I would set
a vagrant in the stocks. You have Fendall now, my Lord - I
would have his fellows before long: and the space between
taking and trying should not add much to the length of their
beards: - between trying and hanging, still less."

"As to that," said the Proprietary, "every day brings us
fresh testimony of the sedition afoot, and we shall not be slow to
do justice on the parties. We have good information of the
extent of the plot against us, and but wait until an open act
shall make their guilt unquestionable. Master Coode is now

"It should make sure work and speedy," said Talbot.
"Master Fendall should find himself at the end of his tether
at the first sitting."

"Ay, and Coode too," said one of the council: "notwithstanding
that the burgesses have stepped forward to protect him.
The House guessed well of the temper against your Lordship in
England, when they stood up so hardily, last month, in favor of
Captain Coode, after your Lordship had commanded his
expulsion. It was an insolent contumacy."

"In truth, we have never had peace in the province," said
another, "since Kendall was allowed to return from his
banishment. That man hath set on hotter, but not subtler spirits
than his own. He has a quiet craftiness which never sleeps nor
loses sight of his purpose of disturbance."

"Alas!" said the Proprietary, "he has not lacked material
to work with. The burgesses have been disaffected ever since
my father's death. I know not in what point of kindness I have
erred towards them. God knows I would cherish affection, not
ill will. My aim has ever been to do justice to all men."

"Justice is not their aim, my Lord," exclaimed Talbot.
"Oh, this zeal for church is a pretty weapon! and honest
Captain Coode a dainty champion to handle it! I would cut
the spurs from that fowl, if I did it with a cleaver!"

"He is but the fool in the hands of his betters," interposed
Darnall. "This discontent has a broad base. There are many
in the province who, if they will not take an open part against

us, will be slow to rebuke an outbreak - many who will counsel
in secret who dare not show their faces to the sun."

"These men have power to do us much harm," said Lord
Baltimore; "and I would entreat you, gentlemen, consider,
how, by concession to a moderate point, which may comport
with our honor, we may allay these irritations. Leaving that
question for your future advisement, I ask your attention to the
letters. The King has commanded - for it is scarce less than a
royal mandate."

"Your Lordship," said Talbot, sarcastically, "has fallen
under his Majesty's disfavor. You have, doubtless, failed
somewhat in your courtesies to Nell Gwynn, or the gay Duchess; or
have been wanting in some observance of respect to old Tom
Killigrew, the King's fool. His Majesty is not wont to look so
narrowly into state affairs."

"Hold, Talbot!" interrupted the Proprietary. "I would
not hear you speak slightingly of the King. He has been
friendly to me, and I will not forget it. Though this mandate
come in his name, King Charles, I apprehend, knows but little
of the matter. He has an easy conscience for an importunate
suitor. Oh, it grieves me to the heart, after all my father's care
for the province - and surely mine has been no less - it grieves
me to see this wayward fortune coming over our hopes like a
chill winter, when we looked for springtide, with its happy and
cheerful promises. I am not to be envied for my prerogative.
Here, in this new world, I have made my bed, where I had no
wish but to lie in it quietly: it has become a bed of thorns, and
cannot bring rest to me, until I am mingled with its dust. Well,
since rebellion is the order of the times, I must e'en myself turn
rebel now against this order."

"Wherein might it be obeyed, my Lord?" asked Darnall.
"You have already given all the rights of conscience which the

freemen ask, and the demand now is that you surrender
your own. What servant would your Lordship displace? Look
around you: is Anthony Warden so incapable, or so hurtful to
your service, that you might find plea to dismiss him?"

"There is no better man in the province than Anthony
Warden," replied the Proprietary, with warmth; "a just man;
a good man in whatever duty you scan him; an upright, faithful
servant to his post. My Lords of the Ministry would not and
could not, if they knew him, ask me to remove that man. I will
write letters back to remonstrate against this injustice."

"And say you will not displace a man, my Lord, come what
may!" exclaimed Talbot. "This battle must be fought - and
the sooner the better! Your Lordship will find your
justification in the unanimous resolve of your council."

This sentiment was echoed by all present, and by some of
the more discreet an admonition was added, advising the
Proprietary to handle the subject mildly with the ministry, in a tone
of kind expostulation, which, as it accorded with Lord
Baltimore's own feeling, met his ready acquiescence.

After despatching some business of less concern, the members
of the council dispersed.

CHAPTER VII.

An
old worshipful gentleman who had a great estate,
That
kept a brave old house at a bountiful rate.
THE
OLD AND YOUNG COURTIER.

But
who the countless charms can draw
That
graced his mistress true?
Such
charms the old world seldom saw,
Nor
oft, I ween, the new.
Her
raven hair plays round her neck,
Like
tendrils of the vine;
Her
cheeks, red, dewy rose-buds deck,
Her
eyes like diamonds shine.
BRYAN
AND PEREENE.

ANTHONY WARDEN had
resided in Maryland for forty years
before the period of this story. During the greater portion of
this time he performed the duties of the Collector of the
Proprietary's revenues in the port. By the persuasion of Cecilius
Calvert he had become a settler in the New World, where he
had received from his patron the grant of a large tract of land,
which, in progress of time, under a careful course of husbandry,
rendered him a man of easy fortune. One portion of this tract
lay adjacent to the town, and stretched along the creeks of St.
Inigoe's, constituting an excellent farm of several hundred acres.
Upon this land the Collector had dwelt from an early period of
his settlement.

A certain sturdiness of character that matched the perils of
that adventurous colonial life, and a vigorous intellect, gave Mr.
Warden great authority over the inhabitants of the province,

which was increased by the predominant honesty of purpose and
plain, unpretending directness of his nature. A bountiful purse
and jocund temper enabled and prompted him to indulge, almost
without stint, that hospitality which furnishes the most natural
and appropriate enjoyment of those who dwell remote from the
busy marts of the world. His companionable habits had left
their tokens upon his exterior. His frame was corpulent, his
features strongly defined, his eye dark blue, with a mastiff
kindness in its glance. The flush of generous living had slightly
overmastered the wind-and-weather hue of his complexion, and
given it the tints of a ripe pear. Seventy years had beaten
upon his poll without other badge of conquest than that of a
change of his brown locks to white; - their volume was scarcely
diminished, and they still fell in curls upon his shoulders.

Two marriages had brought him a large family of children, of
whom the eldest (the only offspring of his first nuptials) was
Alice Warden, a maiden lady who now, well advanced in life,
occupied the highest post of authority in the household, which
had, for several years past, been transferred to her by the demise
of the second wife. His sons had all abandoned the paternal
roof in the various pursuits of fortune, leaving behind them,
besides Mistress Alice, a sister, the youngest of the flock, who, at
the epoch at which I am about to present her, was just verging
towards womanhood.

The dwelling of the Collector stood upon the high bank formed
by the union of St. Inigoe's creek and St. Mary's river. It was,
according to the most approved fashion of that day, built of
imported brick, with a double roof penetrated by narrow and
triangular-capped windows. The rooms were large and embellished
with carved wainscots and a profusion of chiseled woodwork,
giving them an elaborate and expensive aspect. This main building
overlooked, with a magisterial and protecting air, a group of

single-storied offices and out-houses which were clustered around,
one of which was appropriated by the Collector as his place of
business. This spacious domicil, with its broad porch, cottage-like
appendages and latticed sheds, was embosomed in the shade
of elms and mulberries, whose brown foliage, fanned by the
autumnal breeze, murmured in unison with the plashing tide that
beat against the pebbles immediately below. A garden in the
rear, with trellised and vine-clad gateways, and walks lined with
box, furnished good store of culinary dainties; whilst a lawn, in
front, occupying some two or three acres, and bounded by the
cliff which formed the headland on the river, lay open to the sun,
and gave from the water an unobstructed view of the mansion.
The taste displayed in these embellishments, the neatness of the
grounds, the low, flower-spangled hedge of thorn that guarded
the cliff, the clumps of rose trees and other ornamental shrubs,
disposed to gratify the eye in the shifting seasons of their bloom,
the various accessories of rustic seats, bowers and parterres - all
united to present an agreeable and infallible index of that purity
of mind which brought into assemblage such simple and attractive
elements of beauty.

All around the immediate domain of the dwelling-house were
orchards, woodlands and cultivated fields, with the usual barns
and other structures necessary in the process of agriculture; - the
whole region presenting a level plain, some fifty or sixty feet above
the tide, of singular richness as a landscape, and no less agreeable
to be looked upon for its associations with the idea of comfortable
independence in the proprietor. This homestead had
obtained the local designation of the Rose Croft, - a name, in
some degree, descriptive of the predominant embellishment of the
spot.

In his attire, Master Anthony Warden, the worshipful Collector
(to give him his usual style of address in the province), exhibited

some tendency towards the coxcombry of his day. It was
marked by that scrupulous observance of the prerogative of rank
and age which characterised the costume of the olden time, -
smacking no little of the flavor of the official martinet. Authority,
amongst our ancestors, was wont to borrow consequence from
show. The broad line which separated gentle from simple was
recognized, in those days, not less strongly in the habiliments of
the person than in his nurture and manners. The divisions between
the classes of society were not more authentically distinguished;
in any outward sign, than in the embroidered velvet or
cloth of the man of wealth, and the plain serge, worsted, or leather
of the craftsman. The Collector of St. Mary's, on festive occasions,
went forth arrayed much after the manner in which Leslie
has represented Sir Roger de Coverly, in his admirable painting
of that knight; and although he was too vain of his natural locks
to adopt the periwig of that period, yet he had trained his luxuriant
tresses into a studied imitation of this artificial adornment.
His embroidered coat of drab velvet, with wadded skirts and huge
open cuffs, his lace wristbands, his ample vest, and white lamb's
wool hose rolled above his knees, his buckled shoe and three-cornered
hat - all adjusted with a particularity that would put our
modern foppery to shame - gave to the worthy burgess of St.
Mary's a substantial ascendancy and an unquestioned regard, that
rendered him, next to the Proprietary, the most worshipful
personage in the province.

This pedantry of costume and the circumspect carriage which
it exacted, were pleasantly contrasted with the flowing vivacity of
the wearer, engendering by their concourse an amusing compound,
which I might call a fettered and pinioned alacrity of demeanor,
the rigid stateliness of exterior seeming rather ineffectually to
encase, as a half-bursting chrysalis, the wings of a gay nature.

good people of the town, aware of his pertinacity in this particular,
had no mind to make points with him, but, on the contrary,
rather corroborated him in his dogmatism by an amiable assentation;
so that, it is said, he grew daily more peremptory. This
had become so much his prerogative, that the Lord Proprietary
himself gave way to it with as good a grace as the rest of the inhabitants.

It may be imagined that so general a submission to this temper
would have the tendency to render him a little passionate.
They say it was a rich sight to see him in one of his flashes, which
always took the bystanders by surprise, like thunder in the midst
of sunshine; but these explosions were always short-lived, and
rather left a more wholesome and genial clearness in the
atmosphere of his affections.

The household at the Rose Croft, I have hinted, was regulated
by Mistress Alice, who had, some time before our acquaintance
with her, reached that period of life at which the female ambition
for display is prone to subside into a love of domestic pursuits. It
was now her chief worldly care and delight to promote the comfort
of those who congregated around the family hearth. In the
administration of this office, it may be told to her praise, that she
manifested that unpretending good sense which is a much more
rare and estimable quality than many others of better acceptation
with the world. As was natural to her tranquil position and
kindly temper, her feelings had taken a ply towards devotion,
which Father Pierre did not omit to encourage and confirm by
all the persuasions enjoined by the discipline of the Romish church.
The gentle solicitude with which the ministers of that ancient
faith watch and assist the growing zeal of its votaries; the
captivation of its venerable ceremonies, and the familiar and
endearing tone in which it addresses itself to the regard of its children,
sufficiently account for its sway over so large a portion of mankind,

Upon the thoughtful character of Alice Warden this influence
shed a mellow and attractive light, and gave to the performance
of her daily duties that orderly and uninterrupted cheerfulness
which showed the content of her spirit. She found
an engrossing labor of love in superintending the education of her
sister. Blanche Warden had now arrived within a span of her
eighteenth year. Alice had guarded her path from infancy with
a mother's tenderness, ministering to her enjoyments and instilling
into her mind all that her own attainments, circumscribed, it is
true, within a narrow circle, enabled her to teach. The young
favorite had grown up under this domestic nurture, aided by the
valuable instructions of father
Pierre, who had the
guidance of
her studies, a warm-hearted girl, accomplished much beyond the
scant acquisitions ordinarily, at that day, within the reach of women,
and distinguished for that confiding gentleness of heart and
purity of thought and word which the caresses of friends, the
perception of the domestic affections, and seclusion from the busy
world, are likely to engender in an ardent and artless nature.

Of the beauty of the Rose of St. Mary's (for so contemporaries
were wont to designate her) tradition speaks with a poetical
fervor. I have heard it said that Maryland, far-famed for lovely
women, hath not since had a fairer daughter. The beauty which
lives in expression was eminently hers; that beauty which is
scarcely to be caught by the painter, - which, changeful as the
surface of the welling fountain where all the fresh images of nature
are for ever stifling and sparkling with the glories of the mirror,
defies the limner's skill. In stature she was neither short nor tall,
but distinguished by a form of admirable symmetry both for grace
and activity. Her features, it is scarce necessary to say, were
regular, - but not absolutely so, for, I know not why, perfect

regularity is a hindrance to expression. Eyes of dark hazel, with
long lashes that gave, by turns, a pensive and playful light to her
face, serving, at will, to curtain from the world the thoughts which
otherwise would have been read by friend and foe; hair of a rich
brown, glossy, and, in some lights, even like the raven's wing, -
ample in volume and turning her brow and shoulders almost into
marble by the contrast; a complexion of spotless, healthful white
and red; a light, elastic step, responding to the gaiety of her
heart; a voice melodious and clear, gentle in its tones and various
in its modulation, according to the feeling it uttered; - these
constituted no inconsiderable items in the inventory of her
perfections. Her spirit was blithe, affectionate and quick in its
sympathies; her ear credulous to believe what was good, and slow to
take an evil report. The innocence of her thoughts kindled an
habitual light upon her countenance, which was only dimmed when
the rough handling by fortune of friend or kinsman was recounted
to her, and brought forth the ready tear - for that was ever as
ready as her smile.

I might tell more of Blanche Warden, but that my task compels
me to hasten to the matter of my story.

CHAPTER VIII.

The
silk well could she twist and twine,
And
make the fine march-pine,
And
with the needle work;
And
she could help the priest to say
His
matins on a holiday
And
sing a psalm in kirk.
DOWSABEL.

WITH such attractions
for old and young it will readily be
believed that the Rose Croft was a favorite resort of the inhabitants
of St. Mary's. The maidens gathered around Blanche as a
Mayday queen; the matrons possessed in Mistress Alice a discreet
and kind friend, and the more sedate part of the population found
an agreeable host in the worthy official himself.

The family of the Lord Proprietary sustained the most intimate
relations with this household. It is true that Lady Baltimore,
being feeble in health and stricken with grief at the loss of
her son, which yet hung with scarcely abated poignancy upon her
mind, was seldom seen beyond her own threshold; but his Lordship's
sister, the Lady Maria - as she was entitled in the province
- was a frequent and ever most welcome guest. Whether this good
lady had the advantage of the Proprietary in years, would be an
impertinent as well as an unprofitable inquiry, since no chronicler
within my reach has thought fit to instruct the world on this
point; and, if it were determined, the fact could neither heighten
nor diminish the sober lustre of her virtues. Suffice it that she
was a stirring, tidy little woman, who moved about with indefatigable

zeal in the acquittal of the manifold duties which her large
participation in the affairs of the town exacted of her - the Lady
Bountiful of the province who visited the sick, fed the hungry, and
clothed the naked. In the early morning she tripped through the
dew, with scrupulous regularity, to mass; generally superintended
the decorations of the chapel in preparation for the festivals;
gossipped
with the neighbors after service, and, in
short, kept her
hands full of business.

Her interest in the comfort and welfare of the townspeople
grew partly out of her temperament, and partly out of a feudal
pride that regarded them as the liegemen of her brother the chief
- a relation which she considered as creating an obligation to
extend to them her countenance upon all proper occasions: and,
sooth to say, that countenance was not perhaps the most comely
in the province, being somewhat sallow, but it was as full of
benevolence as became so exemplary a spirit. She watched peculiarly
what might be called the under-growth, and was very successful
in worming herself into the schemes and plans of the young people.
Her entertainments at the mansion were frequent, and no
less acceptable to the gayer portion of the inhabitants than they
were to her brother. On these occasions she held a little court,
over which she presided with an amiable despotism, and fully
maintained the state of the Lord Proprietary. By these means
the Lady Maria had attained to an over-shadowing popularity
in the town.

Blanche Warden had, from infancy, engaged her deepest
solicitude; and as she took to herself no small share of the merit
of that nurture by which her favorite had grown in accomplishment,
she felt, in the maiden's praises which everywhere rang
through the province, an almost maternal delight. Scarcely
a day passed over without some manifestation of this concern.
New patterns of embroidery, music brought by the last ship

from home, some invitation of friendship or letter of counsel,
furnished occasions of daily intercourse between the patroness
and the maiden of the Rose Croft; and not infrequently the
venerable spinster herself - attended by a familiar in the shape
of a little Indian girl, Natta, the daughter of Pamesack, arrayed
in the trinketry of her tribe - alighted from an ambling pony at
the Collector's door, with a face full of the importance of business.
Perchance, there might be an occasion of merry-making
in contemplation, and then the lady Maria united in consultation
with sister Alice concerning the details of the matter, and it was
debated, with the deliberation due to so interesting a subject,
whether Blanche should wear her black or her crimson velvet
bodice, her sarsnet or her satin, and such other weighty matters
as have not yet lost their claims to thoughtful consideration
on similar emergencies.

In the frequent interchange of the offices of good neighborhood
between the families of the Proprietary and of the Collector,
it could scarce fall out that the Secretary should not be a
large participator. The shyness of the student and the habitual
self-restraint taught him in the seminary of Antwerp, in some
degree screened from common observation the ardent character
of Albert Verheyden. The deferential relation which he held
to his patron threw into his demeanor a reserve expressive
of humility rather than of diffidence; but under this there
breathed a temperament deeply poetical, and a longing for
enterprise, that all the discipline of his school and the constraint
of his position could scarce suppress. He was now at that time
of life when the imagination is prone to dally with illusions;
when youth, not yet yoked to the harness of the world's business,
turns its spirit forth to seek adventure in the domain of fancy.
He was thus far a dreamer, and dreamed of gorgeous scenes and
bold exploits and rare fortune. He had the poet's instinct to

perceive the beautiful, and his fancy hung it with richer garlands
and charmed him into a worshipper. A mute worshipper he
was, of the Rose of St. Mary's, from the first moment that
he gazed upon her. That outward form of Blanche Warden,
and the motion and impulses of that spirit, might not often haunt
the Secretary's dream without leaving behind an image that
should live for ever in his heart. To him the thought was
enchantment, that in this remote wild, far away from the world's
knowledge, a flower of such surpassing loveliness should drink the
glorious light in solitude - for so he, schooled in populous cities,
deemed of this sequestered province - and with this thought
came breathings of poetry which wrought a transfiguration of
the young votary and lifted him out of the sphere of this
"working-day world." Day after day, week after week, and month
after month, the Secretary watched the footsteps of the beautiful
girl; but still it was silent, unpresuming adoration. It entered
not into his mind to call it love; it was the very humbleness of
devotion.

Meantime the maiden, unconscious of her own rare perfections,
and innocent of all thought of this secret homage,
found Master Albert much the most accomplished and gentle
youth she had ever seen. He had, without her observing how
it became so, grown to be, in some relation or other, part and
parcel of her most familiar meditations. His occasions of business
with the Collector brought him so often to the Rose Croft,
that if they happened not every day, they were, at least, incidents
of such common occurrence as to be noted by no ceremony
- indeed, rather to be counted on in the domestic routine. The
Collector was apt to grow restless if, by any chance, they were
suspended, as it was through the Secretary's mission he received
the tidings of the time as well as the official commands of the
Proprietary; whilst Albert's unobtrusive manners, his soft step,

and pretensionless familiarity with the household put no one out
of the way to give him welcome. His early roaming in summer
sometimes brought him, at sunrise, beneath the bank of the
Rose Croft, where he looked, with the admiration of an artist,
upon the calm waters of St. Inigoe's Creek, and upon the forest
that flung its shades over its farther shores. Not unfrequently,
the fresh and blooming maiden had left her couch as early as
himself, and tended her plants before the dew had left the leaves.
and thus it chanced that she found him in his vocation; and,
like him, she took pleasure in gazing on that bright scene, when
it was the delight of both to tell each other how beautiful it
was. And when, in winter, the rain pattered from the eaves
and the skies were dark, the Secretary, muffled in his cloak,
took his way to the Collector's mansion and helped the maiden
to beguile the tedious time. Even "when lay the snow upon a
level with the hedge," the two long miles of unbeaten track did
not stop his visit, for the Secretary loved the adventure of such
a journey; and Blanche often smiled to see how manfully he
endured it, and how light he made of the snow-drift which the
wind had sometimes heaped up into billows, behind which the
feather of his bonnet might not be discovered while he sat upon
his horse.

In this course of schooling Blanche and Albert grew into a
near intimacy, and the maiden became dependent upon the
Secretary for some share of her happiness, without being aware
of it. Master Albert had an exquisite touch of the lute and a
rich voice to grace it, and Blanche found many occasions to
tax his skill: he had a gallant carriage on horseback, and she
needed the service of a cavalier: he was expert in the provincial
sport of hawking, and had made such acquaintance with Blanche's
merlin that scarce any one else could assist the maiden in casting
off Ariel to a flight. In short, Blanche followed the bent of her

own ingenuous and truthful nature, and did full justice to the
Secretary's various capacity to please her, by putting his talents
in requisition with an unchidden freedom, and without once
pausing to explore the cause why Master Albert always came
so opportunely to her thoughts. Doubtless, if she had had the
wit to make this inquiry the charm of her liberty would have
been broken, and a sentinel would, ever after, have checked the
wandering of her free footstep.

The Collector, in regard to this intercourse, was sound
asleep. His wise head was taken up with the concerns of
the province, his estate, and the discussion of opinions that
had little affinity to the topics likely to interest the meditations
of a young maiden. He was not apt to see a love-affair,
even if it lay, like a fallen tree, across his path, much less
to hunt it out when it lurked like a bird amongst the flowers
that grew in the shady coverts by the wayside. The astuteness
of the lady Maria, however, was not so much at fault, and
she soon discovered, what neither Blanche nor Albert had
sufficiently studied to make them aware of their own category.
But the Secretary was in favor with the lady Maria, and
so she kept her own counsel, as well as a good-natured watch
upon the progress of events.

CHAPTER IX.
TOWARDS noon of the day on which the council held their
session, a troop of maidens were seen issuing from the chapel.
Their number might have been eight or ten. The orderly
step with which they departed from the door was exchanged
for a playful haste in grouping together when they got beyond
the immediate precincts of the place of worship. Their
buoyant carriage and lively gesticulations betokened the
elasticity of health which was still more unequivocally shown
in their ruddy complexions and well rounded forms.

Their path lay across the grassy plain towards the town,
and passed immediately within the space embowered by an
ancient, spreading poplar, scarce a hundred paces in front
of the chapel. When the bevy reached this spot, they made
a halt, and gathered round one of their number, who seemed
so be the object of a mirthful and rather tumultuary
importunity. The individual thus beset was Blanche Warden.
Together with a few elderly dames, who were at this moment
standing at the door of the chapel in parley with Father
Pierre, this troop had constituted the whole congregation
who had that morning attended the service of the festival
of St. Bridget.

"Holy mother, how I am set upon!" exclaimed Blanche, as,
half smiling and half earnest, she turned her back against the
trunk of the tree. "Have I not said I could not? Why

should my birth-day be so remembered that all the town must
be talking about it?"

"You did promise," said one of the party, "or at least,
Mistress Alice promised for you, full six months ago, that when
you came to eighteen we should have a merry-making at the
Rose Croft."

"It would not be seemly - I should be thought bold,"
replied the maiden, "to be turning my birth-day into a feast.
Indeed, I must not and cannot, playmates."

"There is no must not nor cannot in our books, Blanche
Warden," exclaimed another, "but simply we will. There is
troth plighted for it, and that's enough for us. So we hold to
that, good Blanche."

"Yes, good Blanche! gentle Blanche! sweetheart, we hold
to that!" cried the whole party, in a clamorous onset.

"Truly, Grace Blackiston, you will have Father Pierre
checking us for noisy behavior," said the maiden. "You see
that he is now looking towards us. It is a pretty matter to
make such a coil about! I marvel, has no one ever been
eighteen before!"

"This day se'nnight," replied the arch girl to whom this
reprimand was addressed, "will be the first day, Blanche
Warden, the Rose of St. Mary's has ever seen eighteen; and it will
be the last I trow: and what comes and goes but once in the
wide world should be accounted a rare thing, and rarities should
be noticed, sweetheart."

"If I was coming eighteen," said a damsel who scarce
reached as high as Blanche's shoulder, "and had as pretty a
house for a dance as the Rose Croft, there should be no lack of
sport amongst the townspeople."

"It is easy to talk on a two years' venture, little Madge,"
replied Blanche; "for that is far enough off to allow space for

boasting. But gently, dear playmates! do not clamor so loud!
I would do your bidding with good heart if I thought it would
not be called something froward in me to be noising my age
abroad, as if it was my lady herself."

"We will advise with Father Pierre and Lady Maria,"
responded Grace Blackiston; "they are coming this way."

At this moment the reverend priest, and the ladies with
whom he had been in conversation, approached. The sister of
the Proprietary was distinguished as well by her short stature
and neat attire, as by her little Indian attendant, who followed
bearing the lady's missal. The tall figure of Father Pierre,
arrayed in his black tunic and belt, towered above his female
companions. He bore his square bonnet of black cloth in his
hand, disclosing a small silk cap closely fitted to his crown,
fringed around with the silver locks which, separating on his
brow, gave the grace of age to a countenance full of benignity.

The presence of the churchman subdued the eager gaiety of
the crowd, and two or three of the maidens ran up to him with
an affectionate familiarity to make him acquainted with the
subject of their contention.

"Father," said Grace Blackiston, "we have a complaint to
lodge against Mistress Blanche for a promise-breaker. You
must counsel her, father, to her duty."

"Ah, my child! pretty Blanche!" exclaimed the priest,
with the alacrity of his native French temper, as he took the
assailed damsel by the hand, "what have they to say against
you? I will be your friend as well as your judge."

"The maidens, father," replied Blanche, "have taken leave
of their wits, and have beset me like madcaps to give them a
dance at the Rose Croft on my birth-day. And I have stood on
my refusal, father Pierre, as for a matter that would bring me
into censure for pertness - as I am sure you will say it would -

with worshipful people, that a damsel who should be modest in
her behavior, should so thrust herself forward to be observed."

"And we do not heed that, Father Pierre," interrupted
Grace Blackiston, who assumed to be the spokeswoman of the
party, "holding it a scruple more nice than wise. Blanche has
a trick of standing back more than a maiden needs. And,
besides, we say that Mistress Alice is bound by pledge of word,
and partly Blanche, too - for she stood by and said never a
syllable against it - that we should have good cheer and dancing
on that day at the Rose Croft. It is the feast of the Blessed
Virgin, Terese, and we would fain persuade Blanche that the
festival should be kept for the sake of her birth-day saint."

"My children," said the priest, who during this debate stood
in the midst of the blooming troop, casting his glances from one
to another with the pleased expression of an interested partaker
of their mirth, and, at the same time, endeavoring to assume a
countenance of mock gravity, "we will consider this matter with
impartial justice. And, first, we will hear all that Mistress
Blanche has to say. It is a profound subject. Do you admit
the promise, my child?"

"I do not deny, Father Pierre, that last Easter, when we
met and danced at Grace Blackiston's, my sister Alice did make
some promise, and I said nothing against it. But it was an idle
speech of sister Alice, which I thought no more of till now; and
now should not have remembered it if these wild mates of mine
had not sung it in my ear with such clamor as must have made
you think we had all gone mad."

"It is honestly confessed," said Father Pierre; "and though
I heard the outcry all the way to the church door, yet I did not
deem the damsels absolutely mad, as you supposed. I am an
old man, my child, and I have been taught, by my experience, in
what key seven, eight, or nine young girls will make known

their desires when they are together: and, truly, it is their
nature to speak all at the same time. They speak more than
they listen - ha, ha! But we shall be mistaken if we conclude
they are mad."

"Blanche, love," interposed the Lady Maria, "you have
scarce given a good reason for gainsaying the wish of the
damsels. Have a care or you may find me a mutineer on this
question."

"That's a rare lady - a kind lady!" shouted several. "Now,
Blanche, you have no word of denial left."

"I am at mercy," said the maiden, "if my good mistress, the
Lady Maria, is not content. Whatever my sister Alice and my
father shall approve, and you, dear lady, shall say befits my state,
that will I undertake right cheerfully. I would pleasure the
whole town in the way of merry-making, if I may do so without
seeming to set too much account upon so small a matter as my
birth-day. I but feared it would not be well taken in one so
young as I am."

"I will answer it to the town," said the Lady Maria. "It
shall be done as upon my motion; and Mistress Alice shall take
order in the matter as a thing wherein you had no part. Will
that content you, Blanche?"

"I will be ruled in all things by my dear lady," replied the
maiden. "You will speak to my father?"

"It shall be my special duty to look after it forthwith,"
responded the lady.

"Luckily," said Father Pierre, laughing, "this great business
is settled without the aid of the church. Well, I have lost some
of my consequence in the winding up, and the Lady Maria is in
the ascendant. I will have my revenge by being as merry as
any of you at the feast. So, good day, mes
enfans
!"

dwelling hard by the chapel. The Lady Maria and her elderly
companions moved towards the town, whilst the troop of damsels
with increased volubility pursued their noisy triumph, and with
rapid steps hastened to their several homes.

CHAPTER X.
THE Crow and Archer presented a busy scene on the evening
of the day referred to in the last chapter. A report had been
lately spread through the country that the brig Olive Branch -
an occasional trader between the province and the coasts of
Holland and England - had arrived at St. Mary's. In consequence
of this report there had been, during the last two days, a
considerable accession to the usual guests of the inn, consisting of
travellers both by land and water. Several small sloops and
other craft had come into the harbor, and a half score inland
proprietors had journeyed from their farms on horseback, and
taken up their quarters under the snug roof of Garret Weasel.
The swarthy and gaunt watermen, arrayed in the close jackets
and wide kilt-like breeches and in the party-colored, woollen
caps peculiar to their vocation, were seen mingling in the
tap-room with the more substantial cultivators of the soil. A few
of the burghers of St. Mary's were found in the same groups,
drawn thither by the love of company, the occasions, perchance,
of business, or the mere attraction of an evening pot and pipe.
The greater portion of this assemblage were loitering between the
latticed bar of the common room, and the quay in front of the
house, which had somewhat of the occupation and bustle of a
little exchange. On a bench, in one corner of the tap-room,
sat, in a ragged, patched coat resembling a pea-jacket, a saucy,
vagrant-looking fiddler, conspicuous for a red face and a playful
Page 83

light blue eye; he wore a dingy, pliant white hat, fretted at the
rim, set daintily on one side of his head, from beneath which
his yellow locks depended over either cheek, completely covering
his ears: and all the while scraped his begrimed and greasy
instrument to a brisk tune, beating time upon the floor with a
huge hob-nailed shoe. This personage had a vagabond popularity
in the province under the name of Will of the Flats - a designation
no less suited to his musical commodity than to the locality
of his ostensible habitation, which was seated on the flats of
Patuxent, not above fifteen miles from St. Mary's, where he was
tenant of a few acres of barren marsh and a lodge or cabin not
much larger than a good dog kennel.

Will's cheef
compeer and brother in taste and inclination,
though of more affluent fortune, was Dick Pagan, or Driving
Dick according to his more familiar appellation, the courier who
had lately brought the missives from James Town; a
hard-favored, weather-beaten, sturdy, little bow-legged fellow, in
russet boots and long spurs, and wrapped in a coarse drab
doublet secured by a leathern belt, with an immense brass buckle
in front. Old Pamesack, likewise, formed a part of the group,
and might have been observed seated on a settle at the door,
quietly smoking his pipe, as unmoved by the current of idlers
which ebbed and flowed past him, as the old barnacled pier
of the quay by the daily flux and reflux of the river.

Such were the guests who now patronized the thriving
establishment of Master Weasel. These good people were not only
under the care, but also under the command of our hostess the
dame Dorothy, who was a woman by no means apt to overlook
her prerogative. The dame, having been on a visit to a neighbor,
did not show herself in the tap-room until near the close of
the day; in the mean time leaving her customers to the
unchidden enjoyment of their entertainment, which was administered

by Matty Scamper, - a broad-cheated, red-haired and indefatigable
damsel, who, in her capacity of adjutant to the hostess, had
attained to great favor with the patrons of the tavern by her
imperturbable good nature and ready answer to all calls of business.
As for Master Weasel, never did pleasure-loving monarch
more cheerfully surrender his kingdom to the rule of his minister
than he to whatever power for the time was uppermost, -
whether the dame herself, or her occasional viceregent, Matty of
the Saucepan.

Matty's rule, however, was now terminated by the arrival of
Mistress Weasel herself. It is fit I should give my reader some
perception of the exterior of the hostess, as a woman of
undoubted impression and consideration with the townspeople.
Being now in her best attire, which was evidently put on with a
careful eye to effect, I may take occasion to say that one might
suspect her of a consciousness of some deficiency of height, as
well as of an undue breadth of figure, both which imperfections
she had studied to conceal. She wore a high conical hat of
green silk, garnished with a band of pink ribbon which was set
on by indentation or teethwise, and gathered in front into a
spirited cluster of knots. Her jacket, with long tight sleeves,
was also of green silk, adapted closely to her shape, now brought
into its smallest compass by the aid of stays, and was trimmed in
the same manner as the hat. A full scarlet petticoat reached
within a span of her ankles, and disclosed a buxom, well-formed
leg in brown stocking with flashy clocks of thickly embossed
crimson, and a foot, of which the owner had reason to be proud,
neatly pinched into a green shoe with a tottering high heel. Her
black hair hung in plaits down her back; and her countenance
- distinguished by a dark waggish eye, a clear complexion, and
a turned-up nose, to which might be added a neck both fat and
fair, half concealed by a loose kerchief - radiated with an

expression partly wicked and partly charitable, but in every
lineament denoting determination and constancy of purpose. This
air of careless boldness was not a little heightened by the absence
of all defence to her brow from the narrow rim of the hat and
the height at which it was elevated above her features.

The din of the tap-room was bushed into momentary silence
as soon as this notable figure appealed on the threshold.

"Heaven help these thirsty, roystering men!" she exclaimed,
as she paused an instant at the door and surveyed the group
within. "They are still at it as greedily as if they had just
come out of a dry lent! From sunrise till noon, and from noon
till night, it is all the same - drink, drink, drink. Have ye news
of Master Cocklescraft? - I would that the Olive Branch were
come and gone, that I might sit under a quiet roof again! -
there is nothing but riot and reeling from the time the skipper
is expected in the port until he leaves it."

"True enough, jolly queen!" said Ralph Haywood, a young
inland planter, taking the hand of the merry landlady as she
struggled by him on her way to the bar - "what, in good
earnest, has become of Cocklescraft? This is the second day we
waited for him. I half suspect you, mistress, of a trick to
gather good fellows about you, by setting up a false report of
the Olive Branch."

"Thou art a lying varlet, Ralph," quickly responded the
dame: "you yourself came jogging hither with the story that
Cocklescraft was seen two days ago, beating off the
Rappahannock. - I play a trick on you, truly! You must think I have
need of custom, to bring in a troop of swilling bumpkins from
the country who would eat and drink out the character of
any reputable house in the hundred, without so much as one
doit of profit. You have my free leave to tramp it back again
to Providence, Ralph Haywood, whenever you have a mind."

"Take your hand off my shoulder, Ralph, you coaxing
villain! - Ha, ha, I warrant you get naught but vinegar from
me, for your treacle. - But come - you are a good child, and
shall have of the best in this house: - I would only warn you to
call for it mannerly, Master Ralph."

"Our dame is a woman of mettle," said another of the company,
as the landlady escaped from the planter and took her
station behind the bar.

"What has become of that man Weasel?" she inquired
somewhat petulantly. "The man I am sure has been abroad
ever since I left the house! He is of no more value than a
cracked pot; - he would see me work myself as thin as a broom
handle before he would think of turning himself round."

"Garret is now upon the quay," replied one of the customers;
- "I saw him but a moment since with Arnold the
Ranger."

"With some idle stroller, - you may be sure of that!" interrupted
the hostess: - "never at his place, if the whole house
should go dry as Cuthbert's spring at midsummer. Call him to
me, if you please, Master Shortgrass. - Michael Curtis, that
wench Matty Scamper has something to do besides listen to
your claverings! Matty, begone to the kitchen; these country
cattle will want their suppers presently. - Oh, Willy, Willy
o' the Flats! - for the sake of one's ears, in mercy, stop that
everlasting twangle of your old fiddle! - It would disgrace the
patience of any Christian woman in the world to abide in the
midst of all this uproar! - Nay then, come forward, old crony
- I would not offend you," she said in a milder tone to the
fiddler. "Here is a cup of ale, and Matty will give you your
supper to-night. I have danced too often to your music to deny

you a comfort; - so, drink as you will! but pray you rest your
elbow for a while."

"And there is a shilling down on the nail," said Driving Dick,
as he and the fiddler came together to the bar at the summons of
the landlady: "when that is drunk out, dame, give me a space of
warning, that I may resolve whether we shall go another shot."

"Master Shortgrass told me you had need of me," said Garret
Weasel, as he now entered the door; - "what with me, wife
Dorothy?"

"Get you gone!" replied the wife - "you are ever in the way.
Your head is always thrust in place when it is not wanted! If
you had been at your duty an hour ago, your service might have
been useful."

"I can but return to the quay," said Garret, at the same time
beginning to retrace his steps:

"Bide you!" exclaimed the dame in a shrill voice - "I have
occasion for you. Go to the cellar and bring up another stoop
of hollands; these salt water fish have no relish for ale - they
must deal in the strong: - nothing but hollands or brandy for
them."

The obedient husband took the key of the cellar and went on
the duty assigned him.

At this moment a door communicating with an adjoining apartment
was thrown ajar and the head of Captain Dauntrees protruded
into the tap-room.

"Mistress Dorothy," he said - "at your leisure, pray step this
way."

The dame tarried no longer than was necessary to complete a
measure she was filling for a customer, and then went into the
room to which she had been summoned. This was a little parlor
where the Captain of musketeers had been regaling himself for
the last hour over a jorum of ale, in solitary rumination. An

open window gave to his view the full expanse of the river, now
glowing with the rich reflexions of sunset; and a balmy October
breeze played through the apartment and refreshed without chilling
the frame of the comfortable Captain. He was seated near
the window in a large easy-chair when the hostess entered.

"Welcome, dame," he said, without rising from his seat, at
the same time offering his hand, which was readily accepted by the
landlady. - "By St. Gregory and St. Michael both, a more buxom
and tidy piece of flesh and blood hath never sailed between
the two headlands of Potomac, than thou art! You are for a
junketing, Mistress Dorothy; you are tricked out like a queen
this evening! I have never seen you in your new suit before.
You are as gay as a marygold: and I wear your colors,
thou
laughing mother of mischief! Green is the livery of your true
knight. Has your good man, honest Garret, come home yet,
dame?"

"What would you with my husband, Master Baldpate! There
is no good in the wind when you throw yourself into the big chair
of this parlor."

"In truth, dame, I only came to make a short night of it with
you and your worthy spouse. Do not show your white teeth at
me, hussy, - you are too old to bite. Tell Matty to spread supper
for me in this parlor. Arnold and Pamesack will partake
with me; and if the veritable and most authentic head of this
house - I mean yourself, mistress - have no need of Garret, I
would entreat to have him in company. By the hand of thy
soldier, Mistress Dorothy! I am glad to see you thrive so in your
calling. You will spare me Garret, dame? Come, I know you
have not learnt how to refuse me a boon."

"You are a saucy Jack, Master Captain," replied the dame.
"I know you of old: you would have a rouse with that thriftless
babe, my husband. You sent him reeling home only last night.

How can you look me in the face, knowing him, as you do, for a
most shallow vessel, Captain Dauntrees?"

"Fie on thee, dame! You disgrace your own flesh and blood
by such a speech. Did you not choose him for his qualities? -
by, and with all circumspection, as a woman of experience. You
had two husbands before Garret, and when you took him for a
third, it was not in ignorance of the sex. Look thee in the face!
I dare, - yea, and at thy whole configuration. Faith, you wear
most bravely, Mistress Weasel! Stand apart, and let me survey:
turn your shoulders round," he added, as by a sleight he
twirled the dame upon her heel so as to bring her back to his
view - "there is a woman of ten thousand! I envy Garret such
store of womanly wealth."

"If Garret were the man I took him for, Master Captain,"
said the dame with a saucy smile, "you would have borne a
broken head long since. But he has his virtues, such as they are, -
though they may lie in an egg-shell: and Garret has his frailties
too, like other men: alack, there is no denying it!"

"Frailties, forsooth! Which of us has not, dame? Garret
is an honest man; - somewhat old - a shade or so: yet it is but
a shade. For my sake, pretty hostess, you will allow him to sup
with us? Speak it kindly, sweetheart - good, old Garret's jolly,
young wife!"

"Thou wheedling devil!" said the landlady; "Garret is no
older than you are. But, truly, I may say he is of little account
in the tap-room; so, he shall come to you, Captain. But, look
you, he is weak, and must not be over-charged."

"He shall not, mistress - you have a soldier's word for that.
I could have sworn you would not deny me. Hark you, dame, -
bring your ear to my lips; - a word in secret."

The hostess bent her head down, as the Captain desired,
when he said in a half whisper, "Send me a flask of the best, -

you understand? And there's for thy pains!" he added, as he
saluted her cheek with a kiss.

"And there's for thy impudence, saucy Captain!" retorted
the spirited landlady as she bestowed the palm of her hand on
the side of his head and fled out of the apartment.

Dauntrees sprang from his chair and chased the retreating
dame into the midst of the crowd of the tap-room, by whose aid
she was enabled to make her escape. Here he encountered
Garret Weasel, with whom he went forth in quest of Arnold
and the Indian, who were to be his guests at supper.

In the course of the next half hour the Captain and his
three comrades were assembled in the little parlor around the
table, discussing their evening meal. When this was over,
Matty was ordered to clear the board and to place a bottle
of wine and glasses before the party, and then to leave the
room.

"You must know, Garret," said Dauntrees when the serving-maid
had retired, "that we go to-night to visit the Wizard's
Chapel by his Lordship's order; and as I would have stout
fellows with me, I have come down here on purpose to take
you along."

"Heaven bless us, Master Jasper Dauntrees!" exclaimed
Garret, somewhat confounded with this sudden appeal to his
valor, which was not of that prompt complexion to stand so
instant a demand, and yet which the publican was never willing
to have doubted - "truly there be three of you, and it might
mar the matter to have too many on so secret an outgoing" -

"Tush, man, - that has been considered. His Lordship
especially looks to your going: you cannot choose but go. "

handsomely as the taking of Troy. Worthy Garret, say naught
against it - you must go, and take with you a few bottles of
Canary and a good luncheon of provender in the basket. You
shall be our commissary. I came on set purpose to procure the
assistance of your experience, and store of comfortable sustenance.
Get the bottles, Garret, - his Lordship pays the scot to-night."

"I should have my nag," said Garret, "and the dame keeps
the key of the stable, and will in no wise consent to let me have
it. She would suspect us for a rouse if I but asked the key."

"I will engage for that, good Weasel," said Dauntrees: "I
will cozen the dame with some special invention which shall put
her to giving the key of her own motion: she shall be coaxed
with a device that shall make all sure - only say you will obey
his Lordship's earnest desire."

"It is a notable piece of service," said the innkeeper, meditating
over the subject, and tickled with the importance which
was ascribed to his co-operation - "and will win thanks from the
whole province. His Lordship did wisely to give it in charge to
valiant men."

"In faith did he," replied the Captain; "and it will be the
finishing stroke of your fortunes. You will be a man of mark
for ever after."

"I am a man to be looked to in a strait, Captain," said
Weasel, growing valorous with the thought. "I saw by his
Lordship's eye yesternight that he was much moved by what I
told him. I have had a wrestle with devils before now."

Arnold smiled and cast his eye towards the Indian, who,
immediately after supper, had quitted the table and taken a
seat in the window.

"There be hot devils and cold devils," said he, "and he that
wrestles with them must have a hand that will hold fire as well
as ice: that is true, Pamesack?"

"Pamesack has no dealing with the white man's devil,"
replied the Indian; "he has enough to do with his own."

"Drink some wine, old blade," said Dauntrees as he presented
a cup to Pamesack; "The Knife must be sharp to-night
- this will whet his edge. We shall have need of your
woodcraft."

The Indian merely sipped the wine, as he replied, "Pamesack
knows the broad path and the narrow both. He can lead you
to the Black House day or night."

"Brandy is more natural to his throat than this thin drink,"
said Weasel, who forthwith left the room and returned with a
measure of the stronger liquor. When this was presented Pamesack
swallowed it at a draught, and with something approaching
a laugh, he said, "It is the white man's devil - but the Indian
does not fear him."

"Now, Garret," said Dauntrees, "we have no time to lose.
Make ready your basket and bottles, and lay them at the foot
of the cedar below the bank, near the Town House steps; then
hasten back to the parlor. I will put the dame to sending you
on an errand which may be done only on horseback; - you will
mount with the basket and make speedy way to the Fort. Tell
Nicholas Verbrack, the lieutenant, that I shall be there in reasonable
time. We must set forth by ten; it may take us three
hours to reach St. Jerome's."

"My heart is big enough," said Weasel, once more beginning
to waver, "for any venture; but, in truth, I fear the dame. It
will be a livelong night carouse, and she is mortal against that.
What will she say in the morning?"

"What can she say, when all is come and gone, but, perchance,
that you were rash and hot-headed? That will do you
no harm: but an hour ago she swore to me that you were
getting old - and sighed too, as if she believed her words."

"Old, did she say? Ho, mistress, I will show you my
infirmities! A fig for her scruples! the hey-day blood yerks yet,
Master Captain. I will go with you, comrades: I will follow
you to any goblin's chapel 'twixt St. Mary's and Christina."

"Well said, brave vintner!" exclaimed the Captain; "now,
stir! And when you come back to the parlor, Master Weasel,
you shall find the dame here. Watch my eye and take my hint,
so that you play into my hand when need shall be. I will get
the nag out of the stable if he were covered with bells. Away
for the provender!"

The publican went about his preparations, and had no sooner
left the room than the Captain called the landlady, who at
his invitation showed herself at the door.

"Come in, sweetheart. Good Mistress Daffodil," he said,
"I called that you may lend us your help to laugh: since your
rufflers are dispersed, your smokers obnubilated in their own
clouds, your tipplers strewed upon the benches, and nothing
more left for you to do in the tap-room, we would have
your worshipful and witty company here in the parlor. So,
come in, my princess of pleasant thoughts, and make us merry."

"There is nothing but clinking of cans and swaggering
speeches where you are, Captain Dauntrees," said the hostess."
"An honest woman had best be little seen in your company. It
is a wonder you ever got out of the Low Countries, where, what
with drinking with boors and quarreling with belted bullies, your
three years' service was enough to put an end to a thousand
fellows of your humor."

"There's destiny in it, dame. I was born to be the delight
of your eyes. It was found in my horoscope, when my nativity
was cast, that a certain jolly mistress of a most-especially-to-be-commended
inn, situate upon a delectable point of land in the
New World, was to be greatly indebted to me, first, for the

good fame of her wines amongst people; and, secondly,
for the sufficient and decent praise of her beauty. So was it
read to my mother by the wise astrologer. And then, dame,
you slander the virtue of the Low Countries. Look at Arnold
there: is there a more temperate, orderly, well-behaved liegeman
in the world than the ranger? And did he not bring his
sobriety with him from the very bosom of the land you rail
against?"

"If Arnold de la Grange is not all that you say of him,"
replied the hostess, "it is because he has lost some share of his
good quality by consorting with you, Captain. Besides, Arnold
has never been hackneyed in the wars."

"A Dutch head," said Arnold, laughing, "is not easily made
to spin. In the Old World men can drink more than in the
New: a Friesland fog is an excellent shaving horn, mistress!"

"Heaven help the men of the Old World, if they drink more
than they do in our province!" exclaimed Mistress Weasel.
"Look in the tap-room, and you may see the end of a day's
work in at least ten great loons. One half are sound asleep,
and the other of so dim sight that neither can see his neighbor."

"The better reason then, Mistress Dorothy," replied Dauntrees,
"why you, a reputable woman, should leave such topers,
and keep company with sober, waking, discreet friends. That
cap becomes you, mistress. I never saw you in so dainty a
head-gear. I honor it as a covering altogether worthy of your
comeliness. Faith, it has been a rich piece of merchandise to me!
Upon an outlay of fourteen shillings which I paid for it, as
a Michaelmas present to my excellent hostess, I have got in
return, by way of profit, full thirteen bottles of Garret's choicest
Canary, on my wages. Garret was obstinate, and would face
me out with it that you wore it to church last Sunday, when
I knew that you went only in your hood that day: - he has

never an eye to look on you, dame, as he ought - so he must
needs put it to a wager. Well, as this is the first day you have
ever gone abroad in it, here I drink to thee and thy cap,
upon my knees - Success to its travels, and joy to the merry
eye that sparkles below it! Come, Arnold, drink to that,
and get Pamesack another glass of aqua vitæ: - top off to
the hostess, comrades!"

The toast was drank, and at this moment Garret Weasel
returned to the room. A sign from him informed the Captain
that the preparation he had been despatched to make was
accomplished.

"How looks the night, Garret?" inquired Dauntrees: "when
have we the moon?"

"It is a clear starlight, and calm," replied the publican; "the
moon will not show herself till near morning."

"Have you heard the news, mistress?" inquired the Captain,
with an expression of some eagerness; "there is pleasant matter
current, concerning the mercer's wife at the Blue Triangle. But
you must have heard it before this?"

"No, truly, not I," replied the hostess.

"Indeed!" said Dauntrees, "then there's a month's amusement
for you. You owe the sly jade a grudge, mistress."

"In faith I do," said the dame, smiling, "and would gladly
pay it."

"You may pay it off with usury now," added the Captain,
"with no more trouble than telling the story. It is a rare jest,
and will not die quickly."

"I pray you to tell it me, good Captain - give me all of it,"
exclaimed the dame eagerly.

"Peregrine Cadger, the mercer, you know," said the Captain
- "but it is a long story, and will take time to rehearse it.
Garret, how comes it that you did not tell this matter to your

wife, as I charged you to do?" he inquired with a wink at
the publican.

"I resolved to tell it to her," said Weasel, "but, I
know not how, it ran out of my mind - the day being a busy
one -"

"A busy day to thee!" exclaimed the spouse. "Thou, who
hast no more to do than a stray in the pound, what are you
fit for, if it be not to do as you are commanded? But go on,
Captain; the story would only be marred by Garret's telling -
go on yourself - I am impatient to hear it."

"I pray you, what o'clock is it, mistress?" asked the Captain.

"It is only near nine. It matters not for the hour - go on."

"Nine!" exclaimed Dauntrees; "truly, dame, I must leave
the story for Master Garret. Nine, said you? By my sword,
I have overstaid
my time! I have business with the Lord
Proprietary before he goes to his bed. There are papers at the
fort which should have been delivered to his Lordship before
this."

"Nay, Captain," said the hostess, "if it be but the delivery
of a packet, it may be done by some other hand. There is
Driving Dick in the tap-room: he shall do your bidding in the
matter. Do not let so light a business as that take you away."

"To-morrow, dame, and I will tell you the tale."

"To-night, Captain - to-night."

"Truly, I must go; the papers should be delivered by a
trusty hand - I may not leave it to an ordinary messenger. Now
if Garret - but I will ask no such service from the good man at
this time of night; it is a long way. No, no, I must do my own
errand."

"There is no reason upon earth," said the landlady, "why
Garret should not do it: it is but a step to the fort and back."

Garret. "I warrant you his Lordship will think the message
wisely entrusted to me."

"Then get you gone, without parley," exclaimed the dame.

"The key of the stable, wife," said Garret.

"If you will go, Master Garret," said Dauntrees - "and it
is very obliging of you - do it quickly. Tell Nicholas Verbrack
to look in my scrutoire; he will find the packet addressed to his
Lordship. Take it, and see it safely put into his Lordship's
hands. Say to Nicholas, moreover, that I will be at the fort
before ten to-night. You comprehend?"

"I comprehend," replied Garret, as his wife gave him the
key of the stable, and he departed from the room.

"Now, Captain."

"Well, mistress: you must know that Peregrine Cadger,
the mercer, who in the main is a discreet man -"

"Yes."

"A discreet man - I mean, bating some follies which you
wot of; for this trading and trafficking naturally begets
foresight. A man has so much to do with the world in that
vocation, and the world, Mistress Dorothy, is inclined by temper
to be somewhat knavish, so that they who have much to do with
it learn cautions which other folks do not. Now, in our calling
of soldiership, caution is a sneaking virtue which we soon send to
the - no matter where; and thereby you may see how it is that
we are more honest than other people. Caution and honesty do
not much consort together."

"But of the mercer's wife, Captain."

"Ay, the mercer's wife - I shall come to her presently. Well,
Peregrine, as you have often seen, is a shade or so jealous of
that fussock, his wife, who looks, when she is tricked out in her
new russet grogram cloak, more like a brown haycock in motion
than a living woman."

"Yes," interrupted the dame, laughing, "and with a sun
burnt top. Her red hair on her shoulders is no better, I trow."

"Her husband, who at best is but a cotquean - one of those
fellows who has a dastardly fear of his wife, which, you know,
Mistress Dorothy, truly makes both man and wife to be laughed
at. A husband should have his own way, and follow his humor,
no matter whether the dame rails or not. You agree with me
in this, Mistress Weasel?"

"In part, Captain. I am not for stinting a husband in his
lawful walks; but the wife should have an eye to his ways: she
may counsel him."

"Oh, in reason, I grant; but she should not chide him, I
mean, nor look too narrowly into his hours, that's all. Now
Peregrine's dame has a free foot, and the mercer himself
somewhat of a sulky brow. Well, Halfpenny, the chapman, who is a
mad wag for mischief, and who is withal a sure customer of the
mercer's in small wares, comes yesternight to Peregrine Cadger's
house, bringing with him worshipful Master Lawrence Hay, the
viewer."

At this moment the sound of horse's feet from the court-yard
showed that Garret Weasel had set forth on his ride.

"Arnold, I am keeping you waiting," said Dauntrees. "Fill
up another cup for yourself and Pamesack, and go your ways.
Stay not for me, friends; or if it pleases you, wait for me in the
tap-room. I will be ready in a brief space."

The ranger and the Indian, after swallowing another glass,
withdrew.

"The viewer," continued Dauntrees, "is a handsome man -
and a merry man on occasion, too. I had heard it whispered
before - but not liking to raise a scandal upon a neighbor, I kept
my thoughts to myself - that the mercer's wife had rather a
warm side for the viewer. But be that as it may: there was

the most laughable prank played on the mercer by Halfpenny
and the viewer together, last night, that ever was heard of. It
was thus: they had a game at Hoodman-blind, and when it fell
to Lawrence to be the seeker, somehow the fat termagant was
caught in his arms, and so the hood next came to her. Well,
she was blindfolded; and there was an agreement all round that
no one should speak a word."

"Ay, I understand - I see it," said the hostess, eagerly drawing
her chair nearer to the Captain.

"No, you would never guess," replied Dauntrees, "if you
cudgelled your brains from now till Christmas. But I can show
you, Mistress Dorothy, better by the acting of the scene. Here,
get down on your knees, and let me put your kerchief over your
eyes."

"What can that signify?" inquired the dame.

"Do it, mistress - you will laugh at the explosion. Give me
the handkerchief. Down, dame, upon your marrow bones: - it
is an excellent jest and worth the learning."

The landlady dropped upon her knees, and the Captain
secured the bandage round her eyes.

"How many fingers, dame?" he asked, holding his hand
before her face.

"Never a finger can I see, Captain."

"It is well. Now stand up - forth and away! That was
the word given by the viewer. Turn, Mistress Dorothy, and
grope through the room. Oh, you shall laugh at this roundly.
Grope, grope, dame."

The obedient and marvelling landlady began to grope through
the apartment, and Dauntrees, quietly opening the door, stole off
to the tap room, where being joined by his comrades, they tried with
all speed towards the fort, leaving the credulous dame foundering
after a jest, at least until they got beyond the hail of her voice.

CHAPTER XI.

Pale
lights on Cadez' rocks were seen,
And
midnight voices heard to moan,
'Twas
even said the blasted oak,
Convulsive,
heaved a hollow groan.
And
to this day the peasant still,
With
cautious fear, avoids the ground,
In
each wild branch a spectre sees,
And
trembles at each rising ground.
THE
SPIRIT'S BLASTED TREE.

DAUNTREES, after his
unmannerly escape from the credulous
landlady, hastened with his two companions, at a swinging gait,
along the beach to the fort, where they found Garret Weasel
waiting for them in a state of eager expectation.

"Is the dame likely to be angry, Captain?" were the publican's
first words. "Does she suspect us for a frisk to-night?
Adsheartlikens, it is a perilous adventure for the morrow! You
shall bear the burden of that reckoning, Master Captain."

"I left Mistress Dorothy groping for a secret at Hoodman-blind,"
replied the Captain, laughing. "She has found it before
now, and by my computation is in the prettiest hurricane that
ever brought a frown upon a woman's brow. She would bless
the four quarters of you, Garret, if you should return home
to-night, with a blessing that would leave a scorch-mark on you
for the rest of your days. I shouldn't wonder presently to hear
her feet pattering on the gravel of the beach in full pursuit of
us - dark as it is: I have left her in a mood to tempt any

unheard of danger for revenge. So, let us be away upon our
errand. You have the eatables safe and the wine sound, worthy
Weasel? Nicholas," he said, speaking to the Lieutenant, "are
our horses saddled?"

"They are at the post on the other side of the parade," replied
the Lieutenant.

"Alack!" exclaimed Weasel - "Alack for these pranks!
Here will be a week's repentance. But a fig for conclusions! -
in for a penny, in for a pound, masters. I have the basket well
stored and in good keeping. It will be discreet to mount quickly
- I will not answer against the dame's rapping at the gate to-night:
she is a woman of spirit and valiant in her anger."

"Then let us be up and away," said the Captain, who was
busily bestowing a pair of pistols in his belt and suspending his
sword across his body.

"A cutlass and pistols for me," said the publican, as he
selected his weapons from several at hand.

Arnold and Pamesack were each provided with a carbine,
when Dauntrees, throwing his cloak across his shoulders, led the
way to the horses, where the party having mounted, sallied through
the gate of the fort at a gallop.

Their road lay around the head of St. Inigoe's creek, and soon
became entangled in dark, woody ravines and steep acclivities,
which presented, at this hour, no small interruption to their progress.
Pamesack, on a slouching pony, his legs dangling within a foot of
the around, led the way with an almost instinctive knowledge of
his intricate path, which might have defied a darker night. The
stars, shining through a crisp and cloudless atmosphere, enabled
the party to discern the profile of the tree tops, and disclosed to
them, at intervals, the track of this solitary road with sufficient
distinctness to prevent their entirely losing it.

the forest before they approached the inlet of St. Jerome's.
Dauntrees had beguiled the time by tales of former adventures, and
now and then by sallies of humor provoked by the dubious valor
of the innkeeper, - for Weasel, although addicted to the vanity
of exhibiting himself in the light of a smashing, cut-and-thrust
comrade in an emprise of peril; was nevertheless unable, this night,
to suppress the involuntary confession of a lurking faint-heartedness
at the result of the present venture. This misgiving showed
itself in his increased garrulity and in the exaggerated tone of his
vauntings of what he had done in sundry emergencies of hazard,
as well as of what he had made up his mind to do on the present
occasion if they should be so fortunate as to encounter any
peculiarly severe stress of fortune. Upon such topics the party grew
jovial and Dauntrees laughed at the top of his voice.

"The vintner's old roystering courses would make us lose our
road in downright blindness from laughing," he said, as, checking
himself in one of these outbreaks, he reined up his horse. "Where
are we, Pamesack? I surely hear the stroke of the tide upon the
beach; - are we so near St. Jerome's, or have we missed the track
and struck the bay shore short of our aim?"

"The she-fox does not run to her den where she has left her
young, by a track more sure than mine to-night," replied the
guide: - "it is the wave striking upon the sand at the head of
the inlet: you may see the stars on the water through yonder
wood."

"Pamesack says true," added Arnold. "He has found his
way better than a hound."

A piece of cleared land, or old field, a few acres in width, lay
between the travellers and the water, which began now to
glimmer on their sight through a fringe of wood that grew upon the
margin of the creek or inlet, and the fresh breeze showed that the
broad expanse of the Chesapeake was at no great distance.

"The Wizard's Chapel," said Dauntrees, "by my reckoning
then, should be within a mile of this spot. It were a good point
of soldiership to push forward a vanguard. That duty, Garret,
will best comport with your madcap humor - there may be pith
in it: so, onward, man, until you are challenged by some out-post
of the Foul One - we will tarry here for your report. In the
mean time, leave us your hamper of provender. Come, man of
cold iron, be alert; your stomach is growing restive for a deed of
valor."

"You are a man trained to pike and musketoon," replied the
publican; "and have the skill to set a company, as men
commonly fight with men. But I humbly opine, Captain, that our
venture to-night stands in no need of vanguard, patrol or picket.
We have unearthly things to wrestle with, and do not strive
according to the usages of the wars. I would not be slow to do
your bidding, but that I know good may not come of it: in my
poor judgment we should creep towards the Chapel together, not
parting company. I will stand by thee, Captain, with a sharp
eye and ready hand."

"Your teeth will betray us, Master Vintner, even at a score
rods from the enemy," said Dauntrees: "they chatter so rudely
that your nether jaw is in danger. If you are cold, man, button
up your coat."

"Of a verity, it is a cold night, and my coat is none of the
thickest," replied Weasel with an increasing shudder.

"I understand you, Garret," responded the Captain with a
laugh; "we must drink. So, friends, to the green grass, and
fasten your horses to the trees whilst we warm up the liver of our
forlorn vintner with a cup. We can all take that physic."

This command was obeyed by the immediate dismounting of
the party and their attack upon one of the flasks in the basket.

he quaffed a third and fourth cup. "When I was in Tours I
visited the Abbey of Marmoustier, and there drank a veritable
potation from the huge tun which the blessed St. Martin himself
filled, by squeezing a single cluster of grapes. It has the repute
of being the kindliest wine in all Christendom for the invigorating
of those who are called to do battle with the devil. The monks
of the abbey have ever found it a most deadly weapon against
Satan. And truly, Master Weasel, if I did not know that this
wine was of the breed of the islands, I should take it to be a
dripping from the holy tun I spoke of: - it hath the like virtue
of defiance of Beelzebub. So, drink - drink again, worthy
purveyor and valiant adjutant!"

"What is that?" exclaimed Weasel, taking the cup from his
lips before he had finished the contents. "There is something
far off like the howl of a dog, and yet more devilish I should
say - did ye not hear it, masters? I pray heaven there be no
evil warning in this: - I am cold - still cold, Captain Dauntrees."

"Tush, it is the ringing of your own ears, Garret, or it may
be, like enough, some devil's cur that scents our footsteps. Make
yourself a fire, and whilst you grow warm we will take a range,
for a brief space, round the Chapel. You shall guard the forage
till we return."

"That is well thought of," replied the innkeeper quickly.
"Light and heat will both be useful in our onslaught: - while
you three advance towards the shore I will keep a look-out
here; for there is no knowing what devices the enemy may have
a-foot to take us by surprise."

Some little time was spent in kindling a fire, which had no
sooner begun to blaze than Dauntrees, with the Ranger and the
Indian, set forth on their reconnaissance of the Chapel, leaving
Weasel assured that he was rendering important service in

They walked briskly across the open ground towards the
water, and as they now approached the spot which common
rumor had invested with so many terrors, even these bold
adventurers themselves were not without some misgivings. The
universal belief in supernatural agencies in the concerns of mankind,
which distinguished the era of this narrative, was sufficient
to infuse a certain share of apprehension into the minds of the
stoutest men, and it was hardly reckoned to derogate from the
courage of a tried soldier that he should quail in spirit before the
dreadful presence of the Powers of Darkness. Dauntrees had an
undoubting faith in the malignant influences which were said to
hover about the Wizard's Chapel, and nothing but the pride and
subordination of his profession could have impelled him to visit
this spot at an hour when its mysterious and mischievous inhabitants
were supposed to be endued with their fullest power to harm.
The Ranger was not less keenly impressed with the same feelings,
whilst Pamesack, credulous and superstitious as all of his tribe,
was, like them, endowed with that deeply-imprinted fatalism,
which taught him to suppress his emotions, and which rendered
him seemingly indifferent to whatever issue awaited his
enterprise.

"By my troth, Arnold," said Dauntrees, as they strode forward,
"although we jest at yonder white-livered vintner, this
matter we have in hand might excuse an ague in a stouter man.
I care not to confess that the love I bear his Lordship, together
with some punctilio of duty, is the only argument that might
bring me here to-night. I would rather stand a score pikes in
an onset with my single hand, where the business is with flesh
and blood, than buffet with a single imp of the Wizard. I have
heard of over-bold men being smote by the evil eye of a beldam

hag; and I once knew a man of unquenchable gaiety suddenly
made mute and melancholy by the weight of a blow dealt by a
hand which was not to be seen: the remainder of his life was
spent in sorrowful penance. They say these spirits are quick to
punish rashness."

"As Lord Charles commands we must do his bidding," replied
the forester. "When the business in hand must be done, I
never stop to think of the danger of it. If we should not get
back, Lord Charles has as good men to fill our places. I have
been scared more than once by these night devils, till my hair
lifted my cap with the fright, but I never lost my wits so far as
not to strike or to run at the good season."

"Laet lopen die lopen luste, as we used to say in Holland,"
returned the Captain. "I am an old rover and have had my
share of goblins, and never flinched to sulphur or brimstone,
whether projected by the breath of a devil or a culverin. I am
not to be scared now from my duty by any of Paul Kelpy's brood,
though I say again I like not this strife with shadows. His
Lordship shall not say we failed in our outlook. I did purpose,
before we set out, to talk with Father Pierre concerning this
matter, but Garret's wine and his wife together put it out of my
head."

"The holy father would only have told you," replied Arnold,
"to keep a Latin prayer in your head and Master Weasel's wine
and wife both out of it."

"So he would, Arnold, and it would have gone more against
the grain than a hair-shirt penance. I have scarce a tag of a
prayer in my memory, not even a line of the Fac Salve; and I
have moreover a most special need for a flask of that vintage of
Teneriffe on a chilly night; - and then, as you yourself was a
witness, I had most pressing occasion to practice a deceit upon
Mistress Dorothy. The Priest's counsel would have been wasted

words - that's true: so we were fain to do our errand to-night
without the aid of the church. - Why do you halt, Pamesack?"

"I hear the tread of a foot," replied the Indian.

"A deer stalking on the shore of the creek," said Dauntrees.

"More like the foot of a man," returned Pamesack, in a
lowered voice; "we should talk less to make our way safe. -
There is the growl of a dog."

Arnold now called the attention of his companions to the
outlines of a low hut which was barely discernible through the
wood where an open space brought the angle of the roof into
relief against the water of the creek, and as they approached
near enough to examine the little structure more minutely, they
were saluted by the surly bark of a deep throated dog, fiercely
redoubled. At the same time the sound of receding footsteps
was distinctly audible.

"Who dwells here?" inquired Dauntrees, striking the door
with the hilt of his sword.

There was no answer, and the door gave way to the thrust
and flew wide upon. The apartment was tenantless. A few coals
of fire gleaming from the embers, and a low bench furnished with
a blanket, rendered it obvious that this solitary abode had been
but recently deserted by its possessor. A hasty survey of the
hut, which was at first fiercely disputed by the dog - a cross-grained
and sturdy mastiff - until a sharp blow from a staff which
the forester bestowed sent him growling from the premises,
satisfied the explorers that so far, at least, they had encountered
nothing supernatural; and without further delay or comment upon
this incident they took their course along the margin of St.
Jerome's Creek. After a short interval, the beating of the
waves upon the beach informed them that they were not far from
the beach of the Chesapeake. Here a halt and an attentive
examination of the locality made them aware that they stood upon

a bank which descended somewhat abruptly to the level of the
beach that lay some fifty yards or more beyond them. In the
dim starlight they were able to trace the profile of a low but
capacious tenement which stood almost on the tide mark.

"It is the Chapel!" said Dauntrees, in an involuntary
whisper as he touched the Ranger's arm.

"It is Paul Kelpy's house, all the same as I have known it
these twenty years: - a silent and wicked house," whispered
Arnold, in reply.

"And a pretty spot for the Devil to lurk in," said Dauntrees,
resuming his ordinary tone.

"Hold, Captain," interrupted the Ranger, "no foul words,
so near the Haunted House. The good saints be above us!"
he added, crossing himself and muttering a short prayer.

"Follow me down the bank," said Dauntrees, in a low but
resolute voice; "but first look to your carbines that they be
charged and primed. I will break in the door of this ungodly
den and ransack its corners before I leave it. Holy St. Michael,
the fiend is in the Chapel, and warns us away!" he exclaimed, as
suddenly a flash of crimson light illuminated every window of
the building. "It is the same warning given to Burton and myself
once before. Stand your ground, comrades; we shall be
beset by these ministers of sin!"

As the flashes of this lurid light were thrice repeated,
Pamesack was seen on the edge of the bank fixed like a statue,
with foot and arm extended, looking with a stern gaze towards
this appalling spectacle. Arnold recoiled apace and brought his
hand across his eyes, and was revealed in this posture as he
exclaimed in his marked Dutch accent, "The fisherman's blood is
turned to fire: we had best go no further, masters." Dauntrees
had advanced half-way down the bank, and the glare disclosed
him as suddenly arrested in his career; his sword gleamed above

his head whilst his short cloak was drawn by the motion of his
left arm under his chin; and his broad beaver, pistoled belt, and
wide boots, now tinged with the preternatural light, gave to his
figure that rich effect which painters are pleased to copy.

"I saw Satan's imps within the chamber," exclaimed the
Captain. "I saw the very servitors of the Fiend! They are
many and mischievous, and shall be defied though we battle with
the Prince of the Air. What ho, bastards of Beelzebub, I
defy thee! in the name of our patron, the holy and blessed St.
Ignatius, I defy thee!"

There was a deeper darkness as Dauntrees rushed almost to
the door of the house with his sword in his hand. Again the
same deep flashes of fire illumed the windows, and two or three
strange figures of men, in muffled cloaks, were seen, for the
instant, within. Dauntrees retreated a few steps nearer to his
companions, and drawing a pistol, held it ready for instant use.
It was discharged at the windows with the next flash of the
light, and the report was followed by a hoarse and yelling laugh
from the tenants of the house.

"Once more I defy thee!" shouted the Captain, with a loud
voice: "and in the name of our holy church, and by the order
of the Lord Proprietary, I demand what do you here with these
hellish rites?"

The answer was returned in a still louder laugh, and in a shot
fired at the challenger, the momentary light of the explosion
revealing, as Dauntrees imagined, a cloaked figure presenting a
harquebuss through the window.

"Protect yourselves, friends!" he exclaimed, "with such
shelter as you may find," at the same time retreating to the
shelter of an oak which stood upon the bank. "These demons
show weapons like our own. I will e'en ply the trade with thee,
accursed spirits!" he added, as he discharged a second pistol.

The Ranger and Pamesack had already taken shelter, and
their carbines were also levelled and fired. Some two or three
shots were returned from the house accompanied with the same
rude laugh which attended the first onset, and the scene, for a
moment, would have been thought rather to resemble the assault
and defense of mortal foes, than the strife of men with intangible
goblins, but that there were mixed with it other accompaniments
altogether unlike the circumstance of mortal battle; a heavy
sound, as of rolling thunder, echoed from the interior of the
chapel, and in the glimpses of light, antic figures within were
discerned dancing with strange and preposterous motions.

"It avails us not to contend against these fiends," said Dauntrees.
"They are enough to maintain their post against us,
even if they fought with human implements. Our task is
accomplished by gaining sight of the Chapel and its inmates. We
may certify what we have seen to his Lordship; so, masters,
move warily and quickly rearward. Ay, laugh again, you
juggling minions of the devil!" he said, as a hoarse shout of
exultation resounded from the house, when the assailants commenced
their retreat. "Come into the field as veritable men and
we may deal with you! Forward, Arnold; if we tarry, our
retreat may be vexed with dangers against which we are not
provided."

"I hope this is the last time we shall visit this devil's den,"
said Arnold, as he obeyed the Captain's injunction, and moved,
as rapidly as his long stride would enable him to walk, from the
scene of their late assault.

Whilst these events were passing, I turn back to the publican,
who was left a full mile in the rear to guard the baggage and
keep up the fire, - a post, as he described it, of no small
danger.

his separation from his companions, that Garret, when he had
leisure for reflection, set himself to scanning his deportment at
this juncture. His chief scruple had reference to the point of
view in which Dauntrees and Arnold de la Grange would
hereafter represent this incident: would they set it down, as Weasel
hoped they might, to the account of a proper and soldier-like
disposition of the forces, which required a detachment to defend a
weak point? or would they not attribute his hanging back to a
want of courage, which his conscience whispered was not
altogether so wide of truth? There are many brave men, he
reflected, who have a constitutional objection to fighting in the
dark, and he was rather inclined to rank himself in that class.
"In the dark," said he, as he sat down by the fire, with his
hands locked across his knees, which were drawn up before him
in grasshopper angles, and looked steadily at the blazing brushwood;
"in the dark a man cannot see - that stands to reason.
And it makes a great difference, let me tell you, masters, when
you can't see your enemy. A brave man, by nature, requires
light. And, besides, what sort of an enemy do we fight?
Hobgoblins - not mortal man - for I would stand up to any mortal
man in Christendom; ay, and with odds against me. I have
done it before now. But these whirring and whizzing ghosts and
their cronies, that fly about one's ears like cats, and purr and
mew like bats - what am I saying? no, fly like bats and mew like
cats - one may cut and carve at them with his blade with no
more wound than a boy's wooden truncheon makes upon the
wind. Besides, the Captain, who is all in all in his command,
hath set me here to watch, which, as it were, was a forbidding
of me to go onward. He must be obeyed: a good soldier
disputes no order, although it go against his stomach. It was the
Captain's wish that I should keep strict watch and ward here on
the skirt of the wood; otherwise I should have followed him -

and with stout heart and step, I warrant you! But the Captain
hath a soldierly sagacity in his cautions; holding this spot, as he
wisely hath done, to be an open point of danger, an inlet, as it
were, to circumvent his march, and therefore straightly to be
looked to. Well, let the world wag, and the upshot be what it
may, here are comforts at hand, and I will not stint to use
them."

Saying this the self-satisfied martialist opened the basket
and solaced his appetite with a slice of pasty and a draught of
wine.

"I will now perform a turn of duty," he continued, after his
refreshment; and accordingly drawing his hanger, he set forth to
make a short circuit into the open field. He proceeded with
becoming caution on this perilous adventure, looking slyly at every
weed or bush that lay in his route, shuddering with a chilly fear
at the sound of his own footsteps, and especially scanning, with a
disturbed glance, the vibrations of his long and lean shadow which
was sharply cast by the fire across the level ground. He had
wandered some fifty paces into the field, on this valorous outlook,
when he bethought him that he had ventured far enough, and
might now return, deeming it more safe to be near the fire and
the horses than out upon a lonesome plain, which he believed to
be infested by witches and their kindred broods. He had scarcely
set his face towards his original post when an apparition came
upon his sight that filled him with horror, and caused his hair to
rise like bristles. This was the real bodily form and proportions of
such a spectre as might be supposed to prefer such a spot - an
old woman in a loose and ragged robe, who was seen gliding up
to the burning fagots with a billet of pine in her hand, which she
lighted at the fire and then waved above her head as she advanced
into the field towards the innkeeper. Weasel's tongue clave to
the roof of his mouth, and his teeth clattered audibly against each

other, his knees smote together, and his eyes glanced steadfastly
upon the phantom. For a moment he lost the power of utterance or
motion, and when these began to return, as the hag drew neared,
his impulse was to fly; but his bewildered reflection came to his
aid and suggested greater perils in advance: he therefore stood
stock still.

"Heaven have mercy upon me! - the Lord have mercy upon
me, a sinner!" he ejaculated; "I am alone, and the enemy has
come upon me."

"Watcher of the night," said a voice, in a shrill note, "draw
nigh. What do you seek on the wold?"

"Tetra grammaton, Ahaseel - in the name of the Holy Evangels,
spare me!" muttered the innkeeper, fruitlessly ransacking his
memory for some charm against witches, and stammering out an
incoherent jargon. "Abracadabra - spare me, excellent and worthy
dame! I seek no hurt to thee. I am old, mother, too old and
with too many sins of my own to account for, to wish harm to
any one, much less to the good woman of this word. O Lord,
O Lord! why was I seduced upon this fool's errand?"

"Come nigh, old man, when I speak to you. Why do you
loiter there?" shouted the witch, as she stood erect some twenty
paces in front of the publican and beckoned him with her blazing
fagot. "What dost thou mutter?"

"I but sported with my shadow, mother," replied Weasel,
with a tremendous attempt at a laugh, as he approached the
questioner, in an ill assumed effort at composure and cheerfulness. "I
was fain to divert myself with an antic, till some friends of mine,
who left me but a moment since, returned. How goes the night
with you, dame?"

"Merrily," replied the hag, as she set up a shrill laugh which
more resembled a scream, "merrily; I cannot but laugh to find
the henpecked vintner of St. Mary's at this time of sight within the

sound of the tide at the Black Chapel. I know your errand, old
chapman of cheap liquors, and why you have brought your
cronies. You pretend to be a liegeman of his Lordship, and you
travel all night to cheat him of five shillings. You will lie on the
morrow with as sad a face as there is in the hundred. I know
you."

"You know all things, worthy dame, and I were a fool to
keep a secret from you. What new commodity, honest mistress,
shall I find with Rob? The port is alive with a rumor of the
Olive Branch; I would be early with the Cripple. Ha, ha!" he
added, with a fearful laugh, "thou seest I am stirring in my
trade."

"Garret Weasel," said the beldam, "you may take it for a
favor, past your deservings, that Rob will see you alone at his
hut even in day time: but it is as much as your life is worth
to bring your huffcap brawlers to St. Jerome's at midnight. It
is not lawful ground for you, much less for the hot-brained fools
who bear you company. Who showed them the path to my cabin,
that I must be driven out at this hour?"

"Worthy mistress, indeed I know not. I am ignorant of what
you say?"

"They will call themselves friends to the Chapel; but we
have no friends to the Chapel amongst living men. The Chapel
belongs to the dead and the tormentors of the dead. So follow
your cronies and command therm back. I warn you to follow, and
bring them back, as you would save them from harm. Ha! look
you, it is come already!" she exclaimed, raising her torch in the
air, as the flashes from the Haunted House illumined the horizon:
"the seekers have aroused our sentries, and there shall be
angry buffets to the back of it!" At this moment the first shot
was heard. "Friends, forsooth!" she shouted at the top of her
voice: "friends, are ye? there is the token that you are known

to be false liars. Wo
to the fool that plants his foot
before the
Chapel! Stand there, Garret Weasel: I must away. Follow
me but a step - raise thy head to look after my path, and I will
strike thee blind and turn thee into a drivelling idiot for the rest
of thy days. Remember -"

In uttering this threat the figure disappeared; Garret knew
not how, as he strictly obeyed the parting injunction, and his
horrors were greatly increased by the report of the several shots
which now reached his ear from the direction of the Black
House.

He had hardly recovered himself sufficiently to wander back
to the fire, before Dauntrees, Arnold, and Pamesack arrived,
evidently flurried by the scene through which they had passed
as well as by the rapidity of their retreat.

"Some wine, Garret! some wine, old master of the tap!"
was Dauntrees' salutation; "and whilst we regale as briefly as
we may, have our horses loose from the trees; we must mount
and away. To the horses, Garret! We will help ourselves."

"I pray you, Master Captain," inquired the publican, having
now regained his self-possession, "what speed at the Chapel?
Oh, an we have all had a night of it! Sharp encounters all
round, masters! I can tell you a tale!"

"Stop not to prate now," interrupted Dauntrees, in a voice
choked by the huge mouthful of the pasty he was devouring;
"we shall discourse as we ride. That flask, Arnold - I must
have another draught e'er we mount, and then, friends, to horse
as quickly as you may; we may be followed; we may have
ghost, devil, and man of flesh, all three, at our heels."

"I have had store of them, I can tell you - ghosts and
devils without number," said Weasel, as he brought the horses
forward.

you tarry another instant," interposed the Captain, as he sprang
into his saddle.

"What! are we set upon, comrades?" cried out the vintner,
manfully, as he rose to his horse's back, and pricked forward
until he got between Pamesack and Arnold. "Are we set
upon? Let us halt and give them an accolade; we are enough
for them, I warrant you! Oh, but it had well nigh been a
bloody night it!" he continued, as the whole party trotted briskly
from the ground. "We had work to do, masters, and may tell
of it to-morrow. Good Pamesack, take this basket from me, it
impedes my motion in these bushes. Master Arnold, as we
must ride here in single files, let me get before: I would speak
with the Captain. Who should I see, Captain Dauntrees,"
continued the publican, after these arrangements were made,
and he had thrust himself into the middle of the line of march,
and all now proceeded at a slackened pace, "but that most
notorious and abominable hag, the woman of Warrington, Kate,
who lives, as every body knows, on the Cliffs. She must needs
come trundling down before me, astride a broomstick, with a
black cat upon her shoulder, and sail up to the fire which I had
left, for a space, to make a round on my watch - for you may be
sworn a strict watch I made of it, going even out of my way to
explore the more hidden and perilous lurking-places where one
might suspect an enemy to lie. So, whilst I was gone on this
quest, she whips in and seats herself by the fire, with a whole
score of devils at their antics around her. Then up I come,
naturally surprised at this audacity, and question them, partly in
soldier-wise, showing my sword ready to make good my speech,
and partly by adjuration, which soon puts the whole bevy to
flight, leaving Kate of Warrington at mercy: and there I
constrained her to divulge the secrets of the Chapel. She said
there had been devilish work under that roof, and would be

again; when pop, and bang, and slash, and crash, I heard the
outbreak, and saw the devil's lights that were flashed. I could
hold no longer parley with the hag, but was just moving off at
full speed to your relief, determined in this need to desert my
post - which, in my impatience to lend you a hand, I could not
help - when I heard your footfall coming back, and so I was fain
to bide your coming."

"A well conceived sally of soldiership," said Dauntrees,
"and spoken with a cavalier spirit, Master Garret. It has
truth upon the face of it: I believe every word. It shall serve
you a good turn with his Lordship. What does Kate of
Warrington in this neighborhood? She travels far on her
broomstick - unless, indeed, what seems likely, she has taken
her quarters in the cabin we disturbed to-night. These crows
will be near their carrion."

By degrees the party, as they pursued their homeward
journey, grew drowsy. The publican had lost his garrulity, and
nodded upon his horse. Arnold and Pamesack rode in silence,
until Dauntrees, as if waking up from a reverie, said -

"Well, friends, we return from no barren mission to-night.
His Lordship may have some satisfaction in our story;
particularly in the vintner's. We shall be ready to report to his
Lordship by noon, and after that we shall hasten to quiet our
Dame Dorothy. The night is far spent: I should take it,
Arnold, to be past three o'clock, by the rising of the moon.
At peep of day we shall be sung upon our pallets, with no loss
of relish for a sleep which will have been well earned."

As the Captain continued to urge his journey, which he did
with the glee that waits upon a safe deliverance from an exploit
of hazard, he turned his face upwards to the bright orb which
threw a cheerful light over the scenery of the road-side, and in
the distance flung a reflection, as of burnished silver, over the

broad surface of St. Mary's river, as seen from the height which
the travellers were now descending. Not more than two miles
of their route remained to be achieved, when the Captain broke
forth with an old song of that day, in a voice which would not
have discredited a professor:

"The
moon, the moon, the jolly moon,
And
a jolly old queen is she!
She
hath stroll'd o' nights this thousand year,
With
ever the best of company.
Sing,
Hic and hoc sumus nocturno,
Huzza
for the jolly old moon!"

"Why, Garret,
vintner - asleep, man?" inquired the
Captain. "Why do you not join in the burden?"

which he did not fail
to repeat at the top of his voice at each
return.

Dauntrees proceeded:

"She
trails a royal following,
And
a merry mad court doth keep,
With
her chirping boys that walk i' the shade,
And
wake when the bailiff's asleep.
Sing,
Hic and hoc sumus nocturno,
Huzza
for the jolly old moon!

"Master
Owl he is her chancellor,
And
the bat is his serving-man;
They
tell no tales of what they see,
But
wink when we turn up the can.
Sing,
Hic and hoc sumus nocturno,
Huzza
for the jolly old moon!

"Her
chorister is Goodman Frog,
With
a glow-worm for his link;
And
all who would make court to her,
Are
fain, good faith! to drink.
Sing,
Hic and hoc sumus nocturno,
Huzza
for the jolly old moon!"

This ditty was scarcely concluded - for it was spun out with
several noisy repetitions of the chorus - before the troop reined
up at the gate of the Fort. The drowsy sentinel undid the bolt
at the Captain's summons, and, in a very short space, the wearied
adventurers were stretched in the enjoyment of that most
satisfactory of physical comforts, the deep sleep of tired men.

CHAPTER XII.

There
remains
A
rugged trunk, dismember'd and unsightly,
Waiting
the bursting of the final bolt
To
splinter it to shivers.
THE
DOOM OF DEVORGOIL.

THE shore of the
Chesapeake between Cape St. Michael - as the
northern headland at the mouth of the Potomac was denominated
by the early settlers - and the Patuxent, is generally flat, and
distinguished by a clear pebbly beach or strand. The shore,
comprising about twenty miles, is intersected by a single creek,
that of St. Jerome, which enters the bay some five or six miles
north of the Potomac. The line of beach, which I have referred
to, is here and there relieved by small elevations which in any
other region would scarce deserve the name, but which are
sufficiently prominent in this locality to attract remark. From the
general level of the country they rise high enough to afford
a clear prospect over the wide waters, and no less to distinguish
the landward perspective to the mariner whose eye eagerly seeks
the varieties of landscape as he holds his course up the bay. At
a few points these small hills terminate immediately upon the tide
in the abrupt form of a cliff, and, at others, take the shape of a
knoll sinking away by a rapid, but grass-covered, declivity to the
strand. This latter feature is observable in the vicinity of St.
Jerome's, where the slope falls somewhat abruptly to the level
of the tide, leaving something above fifty paces in width of low

ground between its base and the ordinary water-mark. It was
upon this flat that, in ancient times, stood the dwelling-house of
Paul Kelpy the fisherman - a long, low building of deal boards,
constructed somewhat in the shape of a warehouse or magazine.
Some quarter of a mile farther up the beach, so sheltered under
the brow of the slope as scarcely to be seen amongst the natural
shrubbery that shaded it, stood a cottage or hut of very humble
pretensions. It was so low that a man of ordinary height, while
standing at the door, might lay his hand upon the eaves of
the roof, and, correspondent to its elevation, it was so scanty
in space as to afford but two apartments, of which the largest
was not above ten feet square. It was strongly built of hewn
logs, and the door, strengthened by nails thickly studded over its
surface, was further fortified by a heavy padlock, which rendered
it sufficiently impregnable against a sharper assault than might
be counted on from such as ordinarily should find motive to
molest the proprietor of such a dwelling.

A small enclosure surrounded the hut and furnished ground
for some common garden plants which were not neglected in their
culture. A few acres, on the higher plain above the bank,
exhibited signs of husbandry; and the small nets and other fishing
tackle disposed about the curtilage, together with a skiff drawn
up on the sand, gave evidence of the ostensible thrift by which
the occupant of the hut obtained a livelihood.

To this spot I propose to introduce my reader, the day
preceding that at which my story has been opened. It was about
an hour before sunset, and a light drizzling rain, with a steady
wind from the north-east, infused a chilly gloom into the air, and
heightened the tone of solitude which prevailed over the scene.
A thin curl of smoke which rose from the clumsy chimney of the
hut gave a sign of habitation to the premises, and this was
further confirmed by the presence of a large and cross-visaged

mastiff-bitch, whose heavy head might be discerned thrust forth
from beneath the sill of the gable, - a sullen warder of this sullen
place of strength. The waves, now propelled upon a flood tide,
rolled in upon the shore, and broke almost at the door of the
hut, with a hoarse and harsh and ceaseless plash. Far out over
the bay, the white caps of the wind-driven surge floated like
changing snow-drifts upon the surface of the waters. The water
fowl rose in squadrons above this murky waste and struggled to
windward, in a flight so low as frequently to shield them from
the sight in the spray. An old bald eagle perched on the loftiest
branch of a lightning-riven tree, immediately upon the bank
above the hut, kept anxious watch upon her nest which, built in
the highest fork, rocked to and fro in the breeze, whilst her
screams of warning to her young seemed to answer to the din of
the waters.

In the larger apartment of the hut a few fagots blazed upon
the hearth, supplying heat to a pot that simmered above them,
the care of which, together with other culinary operations,
engaged the attention of a brown, haggard and weather-beaten
woman, who plied this household duty with a silent and mechanical
thrift. She was not the only tenant of the dwelling. Remote
from the hearth, and immediately below a small window,
sat, apparently upon the floor, a figure eminently calculated to
challenge observation. His features were those of a man of
seventy, sharp, shrewd and imprinted with a deep trace of care.
His frame indicated the possession, at an earlier period of his life,
of the highest degree of strength; it was broad in the shoulders,
ample in chest, and still muscular, although deprived of its roundness
by age. His dress, of coarse green serge, made into a doublet
with skirts that fell both front and rear, secured by a
leathern belt, was so contrived as to conceal, in his present
posture, his lower extremities. A broad ruff received his locks

of iron gray, which fell over his back in crisp wiry curls: a thick
grizzly beard, of the same hue, gave an elongation to his countenance
which imparted to the observer the unpleasant impression
of a head disproportionately large for the body, at least as seen
in its present aspect. His eyes, dark and unusually clear, were
sunk deep in their sockets, whilst a shaggy and matted brow,
overhanging them like a porch, gave sometimes an almost preternatural
brilliancy to their quick and changeful glances - like the
sparkling of water when agitated in a well. It was observable
from the dropping in of the upper jaw that he had lost his teeth
and this had given a tendency of the strong furrowed lines and
seams, with which his features were marked, to converge towards
the mouth.

His girdle sustained a long knife or dagger, which apparently
constituted a part of his ordinary equipment; and the oblique
flash of his eye, and tremulous motion of his thin lip, betrayed a
temperament, from which one might infer that this weapon of
offense was not worn merely as an ornament of the person.

The individual described in this summary was familiar to
report, throughout the province, as The Cripple. His true name
was supposed to be Robert Swale, - but this was almost lost in
the pervading popular designation of Rob of the Bowl, or
Trencher Rob - an appellative which he had borne ever since his
arrival in the province, now some fifteen years gone by. Of his
history but little was known, and that little was duly mystified,
in the public repute, by the common tendency in the vulgar mind
to make the most of any circumstance of suspicion. The story
went that he had been shipwrecked, on a winter voyage, upon
this coast, and, after suffering incredible hardships, had saved his
life only at the expense of the loss of both legs by frost. In this
maimed condition he had reached the shore of the province, and
some time afterwards built the hut in which he now dwelt, near

the mouth of St. Jerome's. Here he had passed many years,
without other notice than such as the stinted charity
of the world affords when it is exercised upon the fate or fortunes
of an obscure recluse. This observation began to find a broader
scope as soon as it became obvious that the hermit was not
altogether an object for almsgiving; and the little world of this
part of the province discovering, in process of time, that he was
not absolutely penniless, were fain to take offence at the mystery
of his means of earning his frugal subsistence. Before many
years, some few of the traders and country people round had
found out that Rob was occasionally possessed of good merchantable
commodities much in request by the inhabitants of the port,
and dark whispers were sometimes circulated touching the manner
in which he came by them. These surmises were not made
topics of public discussion for two reasons; - first, because it was
not inconvenient or unprofitable to the traders in the secret to
deal with Rob; - and secondly, Rob was not a man to allow this
indulgence of idle speculation; he was of an irascible temper, free
to strike when crossed, and, what was still more to be feared, had
friends who were not unwilling to take up his quarrel. The loss
of his legs was supplied by a wooden bowl or trencher, of an
elliptical shape, to which his thighs were attached by a strap,
and this rude contrivance was swayed forward, when the owner
chose, by the aid of two short crutches, which enabled him to lift
himself from the ground and assume a progressive motion. It
was to the exercise which this mode of locomotion imposed upon
his upper limbs, that the unusual breadth and squareness of his
figure about the shoulders, as well as the visible manifestations
of strength of arm for which he was remarkable, were in part,
perhaps, to be attributed. Use had made him expert in the
management of his bowl, and he could keep pace pretty fairly
with an ordinary walker. The Cripple was a man of unsocial

habits and ascetic life, although there were times in which his
severe temper relaxed into an approach to companionable
enjoyment, and then his intercourse with the few who had access to
him was marked by a sarcastic humor and keen ridicule of human
action which showed some grudge against the world, and, at the
same time, denoted conversancy with mankind and by no means
a deficiency of education. But, in general, his vein was peevish,
and apt to vent itself in indiscriminate petulance or stern reproof.

A small painting of St. Romuald at his devotions, by the hand
of Salvator himself, hung over a dressing table in the back room
of the hut in which the bed of The Cripple was placed; and this
exquisite gem of art, which the possessor seemed duly to appreciate,
was surmounted by a crucifix, indicating the religious faith
in which he worshipped. This might be gathered also from a
curious, antique pix, of heavy gilded metal, a ponderous missal with
silver clasps, a few old volumes of the lives of the saints, and other
furniture of the like nature, all of which denoted that the ingredient
of a religious devotee formed an element in his singular
compound of character.

The superiority of his mind and attainments over those of the
mass of the inhabitants of the province had contributed to render
The Cripple an object of some interest as well as of distrust amongst
them, and this sentiment was heightened into one approaching to
vulgar awe, by the reputation of the person who had always been
somewhat in his confidence, and now attended him as his servitress
and only domestic. This person was the ungainly and repulsive
beldam whom I have already noticed as ministering in the
household concerns of the hut. She was a woman who had long
maintained a most unenviable fame as The Woman of Warrington,
in the small hamlet of that name on the Cliffs of Patuxent,
from whence she had been recently transplanted to perform the

domestic drudgery in which we have found her. Her habitation
was a rude hovel some few hundred paces distant from the hut of
The Cripple, on the margin of St. Jerome's creek, and within
gunshot of the rear of the Black Chapel. To this hovel, after her
daily work was done, she retired to pass the night, leaving her
master or patron to that solitude which he seemed to prefer to any
society. The surly mastiff-bitch, we have noticed, alternately
kept guard at the hut of the master and domestic, - roving
between the two in nightly patrol, with a gruff and unsocial fidelity,
- no unsuitable go-between to so strange a pair. It will not be
wondered at, that, in a superstitious age, such an association as
this of The Cripple and the crone, in the vicinity of such a spot,
desecrated, as the fisherman's lodge had been, by the acting of
a horrible tragedy, should excite, far and wide amongst the people,
a sentiment of terror sufficiently potent to turn the steps of
the wayfarer, as the shades of evening fell around him, aside from
the path that led to St. Jerome's.

The Cripple, at the time when I have chosen to present him
to my reader, was seated, as I have said, immediately beneath the
window. A pair of spectacles assisted his vision as he perused
a packet of papers, several of which lay scattered around him.
The dim light for a while perplexed his labor, and he had directed
the door to be thrown wide open that he might take advantage
of the last moment before the approaching twilight should arrest
his occupation. Whilst thus employed, the deadened sound of a
shot boomed across the bay.

"Ha!" he exclaimed as he threw aside the paper in his hand
and directed his eyes towards the water; "there is a signal! - an
ill bird is flying homeward. Did you not hear that shot, woman?"

"I had my dream of the brigantine two nights ago," replied
the servitress; "and of the greedy kite that calls himself her
master; - the shot must be his."

"Whose can it be else?" demanded The Cripple sharply, as
he swung himself forward to the door-sill and shook his locks from
his brow in the act of straining his sight across the dim surface
of the bay. "Ay, ay; there it is. Hark - another shot! - that
is the true pass word between us: - Dickon, sure enough! - The
brigantine is in the offing. Cocklescraft is coming in with the
speed of a gull. He comes full freighted - full freighted, as is his
wont, with the world's plunder. What dole hath he done this
flight? - what more wealthy knave than himself hath he robbed?
Mischief, mischief, mischief - good store of it, I'll be sworn: - and
a keener knave than himself he hath not fouled in his wide venture.
He will be coming ashore to visit The Cripple, ha! - he shall be
welcome - as he ever hath been. We are comrades, - we are
cronies, and merry in our divisions - the Skipper and the Cripple - there
is concord in it - the Skipper and the Cripple - merry men both!"

These uprisings of the inner thoughts of the man were uttered
in various tones - one moment scarce audible, the next with an
emphatic enunciation, as if addressed to his companion in the hut,
and sometimes with the semblance of a laugh, or rather chuckle,
which was wormwood in its accent, and brought the rheum from
his eye down his cheek. The beldam, accustomed to this habit
of self-communion in The Cripple, apparently heeded not these
mutterings, until he, at length, accosted her with a command. -
"Mistress Kate, double the contents of your pot; - the skipper
and some of his men will be here presently, as keen and trenchant
as their own cutlasses. They will be hungry, woman, - as these
salt-water monsters always are for earthy provender."

"Such sharp-set cattle should bring their provender with
them," replied the domestic, as she went about increasing her store
of provision in compliance with her master's directions.

"Or the good red gold, or the good red gold, old jade," interrupted
The Cripple. "The skipper doth not shrink in the girdle

from the disease of a lean purse, and is therefore worthy of our
worshipful entertainment. So goes the world, and we will be in
the fashion? Though the world's malisons drive him hither as
before a tempest, yet, comes he rich in its gear; he shall have
princely reception. I am king of this castle, and ordain it. Is
he taking in sail? - is he seeking an anchorage? Ha, he understands
his craft, and will be with us anon," he continued, as he
marked the movements of the approaching vessel.

There might be dimly seen, nearly abreast of St. Jerome's, a
close-reefed brig, holding her course before a fair wind directly
across the bay towards the hut of The Cripple. She was, at
intervals, lost to view behind the thickening haze, and as often
reappeared as she bent under the fresh north-east breeze and
bounded rapidly with the waves towards the lee shore. It was
after the hour of sunset when the tenants of the hut were just able
to discern, in the murky gloom of the near nightfall, that she had
lowered sail and swung round with her head seaward, at an
anchorage some two miles out in the bay.

"Quick, Mistress Kate, and kindle some brushwood on the
shore," said the master of the hut. "It grows dark, and the
boat's crew will need a signal to steer by."

The woman gathered a handful of fagots, and, kindling them
into a blaze, transferred them to the beach in front of the hut,
where, notwithstanding the rain, they burned with a steady tight.
This illumination had not subsided before the stroke of oars rose
above the din of the waves; and the boat with her crew, sheeted
with the broad glare of the signal fire, suddenly appeared mounted
on the surf, surrounded with foam and spray, and in the same
instant was heard grating on the gravel of the beach.

Cocklescraft, with two seamen, entered the hut. The slipper
was now in the prime of youthful manhood; tall, active and
strong, with the free step and erect bearing that no less denoted

the fearlessness of his nature than pride in the consciousness of
such a quality. His face, tinged with a deep brown hue, was
not unhandsome, although an expression of sensuality, to some
extent, deprived it of its claim to be admired. A brilliant eye
suffered the same disparagement by its over-ready defiance, which
told of a temper obtrusively prone to quarrel. The whole
physiognomy wanted gentleness, although a fine set of teeth, a regular
profile, and a complexion which, with proper allowance for exposure
to the weather, was uncommonly good, would unquestionably
have won from the majority of observers the repute of a high
degree of masculine beauty.

A scarlet jacket fitted close across the breast, wide breeches
of ash-colored stuff, hanging in the fashion of a kirtle or kilt to
the knees, tight gray hose, accurately displaying the leg in all its
fine proportions, and light shoes, furnished a costume well adapted
to the lithe and sinewy figure of the wearer. A jet black and
glossy moustache, and tuft below the nether lip, gave a martial
aspect to his face, which had, nevertheless, the smoothness of skin
of a boy. He wore in his embroidered belt, a pair of pistols
richly mounted with chased silver and costly jewels, and his person
was somewhat gorgeously and, in his present occupation,
inappropriately ornamented with gems and chains of gold. His hair,
in almost feminine luxuriance, descended in ringlets upon his neck.
A large hat made of the palm leaf, broad enough to shade his
face and shoulders, but ill assorted with the rest of his apparel,
and was still less adapted to the season and the latitude he was
in, though it threw into the general expression of his figure that
trait of the swaggering companion which was, in fact, somewhat
prominent in his character.

"Ay, thy conscience has never stayed thee," was The Cripple's
reply, as he received the skipper's grasp, "when thou wouldst
put thy hand in another man's bowl or trencher, - and especially,
Dickon, if they were made of gold. Thou hast an appetite for
such dishes. How now! where do you come from?"

"That shall be answered variously, friend of the wooden platter.
If you speak to me as Meinherr Von Cogglescraft, I am
from Antwerp, master of the Olive Branch, with a comfortable
cargo of Hollands, and wines French and Rhenish, old graybeard,
and some solid articles of Dutch bulk. But if it be to the
Caballero Don Ricardo, - le beso las manos! - I am from Tortuga
and the Keys, Senor Capitan del Escalfador (there is much virtue
in a painted cloth) with a choice assortment of knicknackeries,
which shall set every wench in the province agog. I have rare
velvets of Genoa, piled and cut in the choicest fashions: I have
grograms, and stuffs, and sarsnets, with a whole inventory of woman
trumpery - the very pick of a Spanish bark, bound from Naples
to the islands, which was so foolish as to read my flag by its
seeming, and just to drop into the Chafing-Dish when he thought
he was getting a convoy to help him out of the way of the too
pressing and inquisitive courtesies of certain lurking friends of ours
in the Keys. I have, besides, some trinkets, which are none the
worse for having been blessed by the Church. You shall have a
choice, Rob, to deck out your chamber with some saintly gems."

"Ha! I guessed thy deviltry, Dickon," said Rob, with a
laugh which, as always happened when much moved, brought
tears down his cheeks - "I guessed it when I saw you step across
the door sill with that large and suspicious sombrero on your
head. It never came from Holland - though you would fain
persuade the province folks that you trade no where else: it is of the

"It is a tell-tale," replied Cocklescraft, "and should have
been thrown overboard before this. Old Kate of Warrington,
your hand - and here is a hand for you! How does the world
use you? Fairly, I hope, as you deserve? You shall have the
sombrero, Kate: you can truss it up into a new fashion for a
bonnet, and I have store of ribands to give you to set it off."

"My share of this world's favor," said the crone, in
acknowledgment of the skipper's bounty, "has never been more
than the cast-off bravery of such as hold a high head over a
wicked heart. I have ever served at the mess of the devil's
bandings. But, as the custom is, I must be civil and thankful
for these blessings; and so, Master Cocklescraft, I give you
thanks," she added with a courtesy, as she placed the hat upon
her head and strutted fantastically in the room, "for your dainty
head-gear that you are unwilling to wear, and durst not, master,
before the port wardens of St. Mary's."

"How, Kate!" exclaimed the skipper, "you have lost no whit
of that railing tongue I left with you at my last venture? I
marvel that the devil has not shorn it, out of pure envy. But I
know, Kate, you can do justice to the good will of a friend, after
all: I would have you to know that you have not been unconsidered,
good mother of a thousand devilkins: I have brought
you stuff for a new gown, rich and ladylike, Kate, and becoming
your grave and matronly years, and sundry trickeries for it, by
way of garniture; and, reverend dam of night-monsters, I have
in store for you some most choice distillations of the West Indies,
both plain and spiced. You do not spurn the strong waters,
Kate of Warrington, - nor the giver of them?"

"This is a make-peace fashion of yours," said the beldam,
relaxing into a smile. "You thought not of the woman of

Warrington - no, not so much as a dog's dream of her - until it
chanced to come into your head that the foolish crone had a will
which it might not be for your good to set against you. I knew
your incoming, Richard Cocklescraft, before it was thought of in
the province; and I know when your outgoing will be. You
come with a surly sky and a gay brow; - you shall trip it hence
with a bright heaven above you, and deftly, boy - but with a
heavy heart and a new crime upon your soul."

"Peace, woman! I will hear none of your croakings - it is an
old trick; the device is too stale," said Cocklescraft, half
playfully and half vexed. "You are no conjuror, Kate, as you would
make the world believe by these owl-hootings: if you had but a
needle's-eyeful of the true witch in you, you would have foretold
what bounty my luck has brought you. - Rob, we have packages
to land to-night. Is the Chapel ready for our service?"

"How should it be other than ready? Doth not the devil
keep his quarters there?" said Rob, with a low-toned chuckle
that shook his figure for some moments, and almost closed his
eyes; "hath he not his court in the Chapel? Go ask the whole
country side: they will swear to it on their bible oaths. Sundries
have seen the hoofs and horns, and heard the howlings, -
ay, and smelt the brimstone - ha, ha, ha! They'll swear to it.
Is the Chapel ready, in sooth? It is a precious Chapel! Paul
Kelpy, thou wert an honest cut-throat, to bedevil so good a
house: we turn it to account - ha, ha! It needs but to take
the key, Dickon. I warrant you, ne'er a man in the province,
burgher or planter, gentle or simple, ventures near enough to
molest you."

"The surf runs high," said Cocklescraft, "and may give us
trouble in the landing to-night; and as daylight must not find me
in this latitude, I shall put what I may ashore before the dawn,
and then take a flight to the opposite side of the bay. To-morrow

night I shall finish my work; and you shall soon after hear,
at St. Mary's, that the good and peaceful brigantine, the Olive
Branch, has arrived from Holland. Meantime, I will leave you
a half dozen men to garrison the Chapel, Rob."

"It is so well garrisoned with my merry goblins already,"
said Rob, "that it requires but a light watch. The fires alone
would frighten his Lordship's whole array of rangers. That was
a pretty device of mine, Dickon - blue, green, and red - excellent
devil-fires all! Then I have masks - faith, most special masks!
the very noses of them would frighten the short-winded trainbands
of the Port into catalepsy. And the Chapel had an ill
name when the fisherman shed blood on the floor: but since we
blackened it, Richard - oh, that was a subtle thought! - it is past
all power of exorcism: there is an ague in the very name of the
Black Chapel." And here The Cripple gave way to a burst of
laughter, which had been struggling for vent during all this
reference to the arts by which he had contrived to maintain the
popular dread of the fisherman's lodge.

Whilst this conference was held, the crone had prepared their
evening meal, which being now ready, Rob was lifted upon a low
platform that brought him to the proper level with the table,
where he was able to help himself. Cocklescraft partook with
him, and might almost have envied the keen gust and ravenous
appetite with which his host despatched the coarse but savory
fare of the board - for The Cripple's power of stomach seemed to
be no whit impaired by age. He continued to talk, during his
meal, in the same strain which we have described, now indulging
a peevish self-communion, now bursting forth with some sarcastic
objurgation of the world, and again breaking a jest with his visitor.

When the seamen, under the ministration of the aged domestic,
had got their supper, Cocklescraft took his departure.

All night long lights were gleaming in the Chapel; the rain
continued in a steady misty drizzle, and not a star was seen to
tempt a wanderer abroad. The morning, which broke upon an
atmosphere purged of its vapors, showed no trace of the brig in
the vicinity of St. Jerome's. Far down the bay, hugging the
eastern shore, might have been discerned what a practiced mariner
would affirm to be a sail; but whether ship or brig - whether
outward or homeward bound, might not be told without the aid
of a glass.

CHAPTER XIII.

Up
she rose, and forth she goes, -
I'll
mote she speed therefor.
ADAM
BELL.

Bell,
my wife, she loves not strife,
Yet
she will lead one if she can;
And
oft, to live a quiet life,
I'm
forced to yield, though I'm goodman.
It's
not for a man a woman to threape,
Unless
he first give o'er his plea;
As
we began we now will leave
And
I’ll take my old cloak about me.
OLD
SONG.

IT was nine o'clock of
the morning before Dauntrees and his
companions, Garret and Arnold, rose from their beds. Pamesack,
whose taciturnity was not greater than his indifference to fatigue,
had, at an earlier hour, gone his way. A breakfast was provided
in the Captain's quarters, and the three heroes of the past night
sat down to it with a relish which showed that, however
unfit they might be to contend against spiritual foes, their
talents for this encounter of material existences were highly
respectable.

"You have had a busy time of it in dreams, Master Weasel,"
said Dauntrees, "since you laid yourself down on your trundle bed
this morning. You have been re-acting your exploits at the
Chapel. I heard you at daylight crying aloud for sword and
dagger."

"Ah, Captain Dauntrees," replied the publican, "my head
has been full of fantasies since I laid me down to rest - for I
was exceeding weary - and weariness doth set the brain to ramble
in sleep. There was good argument, too, in our deeds at St.
Jerome's for a world of dreaming."

"Last night has made a man of you, my gallant vintner.
You should bless your stars that you fell into such worthy
company. You knew not heretofore - even with your experience
at Worcester - what elements of valor it pleased Heaven to
mix up in the mould whereof you were made. A man never
sufficiently values himself until he has had some such passage
as this."

"Ay, and look you, Captain Dauntrees," said Garret, his eye
flashing with self-gratulation, "you will reflect that I had the
brunt of it alone, whilst you three were banded together for
common defence and support. There I was, by my single self,
in the very centre of them. A man needs more comfort and
companionship in a matter with witches and devils, than he does
against your sword and buckler fellows. Tut! I wouldn't have
cared a fig for a foe that could be struck at; but these pestilent
things of the dark - hags on besoms, and flying bats as big as a
man, great sword-fishes walking on legs, with their screechings,
and mopings, and mewings - how it tries the reins of a solitary
man! But you had flashing, and firing, and charging, Captain,
which is more in the way of what one expects in a fight, and one
prepared for: it has life in it."

"That is most true, doughty Garret. A culverin is but the
whiff of an eaten pipe, compared with a hag upon her broomstick.
You were ever the man to encounter these women. It needs
your mettle to face them. Now there is your wife, Master
Weasel - oh, but that is a peril in store for you! You shall go
to her and have it over, whilst I make my report to his Lordship;

when that is done I will straight for the Crow and Archer,
to help you in the battle, which by that time will doubtless find
you sore at need."

"I must go to his Lordship with you," replied Garret, in
a lowered key; "I must have my hand in the report; after that
we will set out together for the inn."

"Why, man!" exclaimed Dauntrees, with affected astonishment,
"would you tarry to do your duty to Mistress Dorothy?
Do you not know that she has suffered agony of mind the
live-long night in your behalf, and that she is now in the very
tempest of her affection waiting for you?"

"I know it, I know it, worthy Captain; but it does not
become my respect for Lord Charles's service to defer his business
for mine own."

"You shall not budge an inch," said Dauntrees, "on any other
path than that which takes you quickly to your loving wife."

"Truly, Captain," replied Weasel, in a dolorous tone, "I
would have you go with me; I beseech you heartily, allow me
to bear you company to his Lordship. His Lordship will think
it strange I did not come: and it will take more than me to
pacify the dame."

"Well, friend Weasel, in consideration that you contended
single handed last night with a whole score of devils, and bore
yourself gallantly; and, moreover, as it is such heavy odds against
you in this matter of Dame Dorothy - for, of a verity, I know she
is in a devil of a passion at your contumacy, and not less at mine,
I'll be sworn - why we will make a muster of it and breathe our
defence in solid column. Arnold will go with us. And mark
me, vintner, at the fitting time we shall regale."

"On the best in cellar or larder at the Crow and Archer,"
replied Garret. "You have the word of a man and a soldier
for it."

"I wot of a woman and no soldier, whose word would go further
to that bargain, Garret, than yours. Make ready, friends,
we must move."

Dauntrees now set his beaver jauntily over his brow, and
throwing his short cloak across his arm, marched through the
postern of the fort, followed by his trusty allies, to the mansion
of the Lord Proprietor.

Lord Baltimore received them in his library, and there heard
from the Captain a circumstantial narrative of the events of the
preceding night.

"It is a strange tale," he said, "and may well perplex the faith
of the simple rustics of the province. That evil spirits preside
over that blood-stained house, from your testimony, Captain
Dauntrees, may no longer be denied. Friends, you all saw these
things?"

"All," said Garret Weasel, with emphatic solemnity, as he
straitened his body even beyond the perpendicular line. "Pamesack
and Arnold stood by the Captain and can vouch for him. I
maintained a post of danger, an please you Lordship, alone;
what I saw neither the Captain, Arnold, nor Pamesack, saw - it
was a fearful sight."

"What was it?" inquired the Proprietary, with some earnestness.

"A woman," replied Garret, "seemingly a woman, an your
Lordship comprehends; but in truth a witch, as we all do know:
- Kate of Warrington, of whom your Lordship has heard. She
it was who came suddenly down upon the wold. How she came,"
here Garret shook his head, "and what came with her, - it was a
sight to look upon!"

"The vintner affirms to sundry fantastic shapes of imps and
spectres in company with the woman of Warrington," said
Dauntrees. "We saw nothing of the hag, having left Master Weasel

some distance in our rear when we visited the Chapel. He was
cold, and required comfort. What he recounts, my Lord, you
have his own avouch for."

"And what say you, Arnold?" inquired his Lordship, smiling.

"These ghosts and goblins keep a hot house, and the less we
have to do with them the better," replied the forester, gravely.

"They fired upon you, Captain?" said the Proprietary;
"with what weapons?"

"They had the sharp crack of the musket and pistol," replied
Dauntrees, "or what seemed to be such: yet I would not swear
that I saw carnal weapons in the strife, though in the flash I
thought I noted fire-arms. This may tell better than guess of
mine, my Lord," he added, as he held up his cloak and pointed to
a rent in one of its folds; "this hole was made by some missive
from the house: whether it be a bullet mark or an elf-shot, I will
not say."

"Body o' me!" exclaimed Garret Weasel, as the Captain
pointed to the damage he had sustained, "I knew not this before.
There was hot work, I warrant."

"There is knavery in alliance with this sorcery," said the Proprietary,
as he examined the cloak. "These wicked spirits ever
find kindred amongst men. They have profligate companions of
flesh to profit by their devilish arts. I thank you, friends, kindly,
for this exploit, and will turn it to wholesome account hereafter.
Fare you well."

The party left the room, and now shaping their course towards
the Crow and Archer, soon descended below the bank and took
the road along the beach.

Whilst they trudged through the sand and gravel, midway
between the fort and the town, Dauntrees, looking behind, saw a
figure descending on horseback from the main gate of the fort
down to the road upon which they now travelled. It was that

of a woman, whose gestures, at the distance of half a mile, were
sufficiently observable to show that she urged her horse forward
with impatient earnestness. As soon as she arrived at the level
of the beach, her speed was increased nearly to the utmost of the
faculty of the animal which bore her, and she now came flying over
the sand, with her garments and loose tresses floating in the
wind.

"In the devil's name, what have we here?" exclaimed Dauntrees.
"As I live, it is our queen of the hostel! Oh, Garret,
Garret, here is a volcano! Here is an out-come with a conclusion
at hand! Stand, masters, firmly on your legs, and brace up for
the onset!"

"Alack, alack!" groaned the publican; "the woman is bereft.
She has my nag from the fort."

"Ay, and rides upon your saddle, as if it were made for her,"
ejaculated the Captain. "Take post behind me, Garret: I will
answer her speech."

"It were no more than the luck she deserves," said Garret,
pettishly, "if she should fall from the nag and break her little
finger, or at the least sprain an ankle joint."

"Hold, runagates! varlets! out upon you for a filthy Captain!"
shouted the dame, in a shrill voice, as she came within call
of the party, and now galloped up to the spot at which they had
halted. "Give me that idiot from your beastly company. Garret
Weasel, Garret Weasel! you have been the death of me!"

"Good lack, Mistress Dorothy, wife, why do you bear yourself
in such a sort as this?"

"I will bare you to the buff, driveller, for this. Are you not
steeped in wickedness and abomination by evil-consorting with
this copper Captain, and this most horrid wood ranger? Have
you no eye for your family; no regard for good name, that you
must be strolling o' nights with every pot-guzzler and foul-breathed

and cankered cast-off of the wars? I am ashamed of you. You
have been in your cups, I warrant, the live-long night."

"Dame, I must speak, now," said Dauntrees.

"Thou, thou!" interrupted the hostess, with her face scarlet
from anger. "Never in a Christian land should such as you be
permitted to lift your head before honest people. His Lordship
would do but justice to the province to chain you up in a dark
stable, as a bull which may not be trusted at large. Did you
not beguile me last night with a base lie? Did you not practice
upon me, you faithless, false-hearted coward?" here tears fell
from the flashing eyes of the voluble landlady. "Did you not
steal that lob, my husband, from me, thief?"

"Appearances, dame," replied the Captain, with a grave
composure, "if they might be trusted, were certainly to my disfavor
last night. But, then, I knew that when this matter was all over,
I had a most sufficient and excellent reason, which a considerate,
virtuous, and tender-hearted woman like yourself would fully
approve, when she came to hear it. There was matter in hand
of great import and urgency; no revelling, dame - no riot - but
brave service, enjoined by his Lordship, and which it was his
Lordship's most earnest desire should be committed in part to
your husband. It was an action of pith and bravery he had on
hand; and his Lordship being well aware, dame, that Garret's
wife was a woman of a loving heart, and gentle withal in her
nature, and not fitted to endure the wringing of her affection by
such a trial as the adventure imposed upon Garret, he charged
me to make some light pretext for withdrawing your husband
from your eye, which, by fraud, I confess, I did, and am now -
since Garret hath worthily achieved his most perilous duty - here
to avow my own treachery. There is promotion and great
advantage at hand for this which will set up your head, dame,
the highest amongst them that wear hoods."

"We have barely escaped with our lives, Mistress Dorothy,"
said Weasel, in a whining accent of deprecation; "we should be
made much of and praised for our duty, not be set upon with
taunts and foul rebukes; and when you know all, wife, you will
be sorry for this wounding of our good name."

"This is but another trick," said the landlady.

"Nay, good Mistress," interrupted the Captain, "I will
agree to be gibbeted by your own fair hand, if I do not satisfy
you that in this adventure we are deserving of all applause. The
Lieutenant at the fort, doubtless, told you that we were absent
last night on special duty at his Lordship's command?"

"The varlet did feign such a story, when I thought to catch
this fool in your company. And he would deny me, too, the
nag; but I brought such coil about his ears that he was glad to
give me the beast and set all gates open. Where do you say you
have spent the night?"

"At the Black Chapel, mistress," said Weasel, with a most
portentous solemnity of speech: "at the Black Chapel, by his
Lordship's order; and, oh, the sights we have seen! and the
time we have had of it, wife! it would make your blood freeze
to hear it."

"On the honor of a soldier, dame! by the faith of this right
hand!" said Dauntrees, as he offered it to the hostess and took
hers, "I swear this is true. We have had a night of wonders,
which you shall hear in full when the time suits. We are on our
way now to the Crow and Archer, for your especial gratification."

"Can this be true, Arnold?" inquired the mollified and
bewildered landlady. "I will believe what you say."

"You may trust in every word of it, as I am a Christian man.
There be marvellous doings at the Black Chapel. We have seen
spirits and devils in company."

"Ride forward, dame," added Dauntrees; "you shall see us
soon at the hostel. And I promise you shall have the story,
too, of the Mercer's Wife from beginning to end: you shall,
dame."

"You are a wheedling, cogging cheat, Captain; thy roguery
will have a melancholy end yet," replied the dame, as she now
rode forward with a sunshiny smile playing upon features which
but a few moments before were dark with storm.

When they reached the Crow and Archer they found a group
of traders assembled on the quay, gazing with a busy speculation
towards the mouth of the river. By degrees the crowd increased,
and the rumor soon spread about that the Olive Branch was in
sight. A vessel was, indeed, discernible across the long flat of
St. Inigoe's, just entering the river, and those who professed a
knowledge of nautical affairs had no scruple in announcing her
as the brigantine of Cocklescraft. She was apparently an active
craft, belonging to the smaller class of sea-vessels, and manifestly
a faster sailer than was ordinarily to be seen at that period. A
fair and fresh breeze impelled her steadily towards her haven,
and as she bounded over the glittering waters, the good folks of
the little city were seen clustering in knots on every prominent
cliff along the high bank, and counting the minutes which brought
this messenger from the old world nearer to their salutation.

Meantime the Olive Branch began to show the sparkling
foam which broke upon her bow: then to give forth voices from
her deck, audible to the crowd; presently to lower sail; and at
last, being stripped to her bare poles and naked rigging, she
glided with lessening speed, slower and slower, until her
extended cable showed that her anchor was dropped and her
voyage at an end.

the Town House wharf, and after a brief interval, Cocklescraft,
arrayed as we have before seen him, except that he had changed
his sombrero for a tasseled cap of cloth, landed on the quay, and
soon became the lion of the Crow and Archer.

CHAPTER XIV.

Every
white will have its black,
And
every sweet its sour.
OLD
BALLAD.

THE birth-day festival
at the Rose Croft might be said
appropriately to belong to the eminent dominion of the Lady Maria.
It therefore lacked nothing of her zealous supervision. With the
aid of Father Pierre and some female auxiliaries she had persuaded
the Collector - a task of no great difficulty - to sanction
the proceeding, and she was now intent upon the due ordering
and setting out of the preparations. The day was still a week
off when, early after breakfast, on a pleasant morning the
business-fraught lady was seen in the hall, arrayed in riding hood
and mantle, ready to mount a quiet black-and-white pony that, in
the charge of a groom, awaited her pleasure at the door. Natta,
the little Indian girl, stood by entrusted with the care of a
work-bag or wallet apparently well stuffed with the materials for
future occupation - the parcel-fragments which thrifty housewives
and idleness-hating dames, down to this day, are accustomed to
carry with them, for the sake of the appearance, at least, of
industry. Just at this moment the Proprietary came into the
hall, and seeing that his worthy sister was bound on some
enterprise of more than usual earnestness, he added to his
customary morning salutation a playful inquiry into the purport
of her excursion.

"Ah, Charles," she replied, "there are doings in the province
which are above the rule of your burgesses and councils. I hold
a convocation at the Rose Croft to-day, touching matters more
earnest than your state affairs. We have a merry-making in
the wind, and I am looked to both for countenance and advice.
It is my prerogative, brother, to be mistress of all revels."

"God bless thine age, Maria!" was the affectionate reply of
the Proprietary - "it wears a pleasant verdure and betokens a
life of innocent thoughts and kind actions. May the saints bear
thee gently onward to thy rest! Come, I will serve as your
cavalier, and help you to your horse, sister. - See now, my arm
has pith in it. Hither, Natta - there is the wench on the pillion
- who could serve thee with a better grace than that?"

"Thanks - thanks, good brother!" ejaculated the lady as
the Proprietary lifted her to her seat, and then swung the Indian
girl upon the pillion behind her. "Your arm is a valiant arm,
and is blessed by more than one in this province. It has ever
been stretched forth in acts of charity and protection."

"Nay, Maria, you are too old to flatter. Fie! I have no
advancement to offer you. In truth you are sovereign here -
though you go through your realm with but scant attendance for
one so magnified. Why is not Albert in your train? I may
well spare him - as he has a liking for such service."

"Brother, I would not tax the Secretary. He has a free foot
for his own pleasure; and, methinks, he finds his way to the Rose
Croft easily enough without my teaching. It is an ancient caution
of mine in such affairs, neither to mar nor make."

"Heaven help thee for a considerate spinster!" said the
Proprietary with a benignant smile as he raised his hands and
shook them sportively towards his sister. "Go your ways with
your whimsies and your scruples; - and a blessing on them! I
wish yours were our only cares: - but go your ways, girl!" he

added, as the lady set forth on her journey, and he withdrew
from the door.

At the Rose Croft, the approaching merry-making had superseded
all other family topics, both in parlor and kitchen. The
larder was already beginning to exhibit the plentiful accumulations
which, in a place of strength, might portend a siege: the
stable boys were ever on the alert, with their cavalry, to do
rapid errands to the town, and Michael Mossbank, the garderner,
was seen in frequent and earnest consultation with John Pouch,
a river-side cotter, touching supplies of fish and wild fowl.

Whilst the elder sister Alice despatched the graver duties of
the housekeeping, she had consigned to Blanche the not less
important care of summoning the guests, and the maiden was
now seated at the table with pen in hand registering the names
of those who had been, or were to be, invited to the feast, - or, in
other words, making a census of pretty nearly the whole titheable
population of St. Mary's and its dependencies.

"A plague upon it for a weary labor!" she exclaimed as she
threw down the pen and rested her chin upon the palm of her hand.
"I know I shall forget somebody I ought not to forget - and
shall be well rated for it. And then again I shall be chid for
being too free with my fellowship. - What a world of names is
here! I did not think the whole province had so many. There
is Winnefred Hay, the viewer's sister, - they have tales about
her which, if they be true, it is not fit she should be a crony of
mine - and yet I don't believe them, though many do. - Truly the
viewer will be in a grand passion if I slight her! Sister Alice,
give me your advice."

"Bid her to the feast, Blanche. We should be slow to believe
these rumors to the injury of a neighbor. Winnefred Hay is not
over discreet - and gives more semblance to an evil opinion than,
in truth, her faults deserve: but the townspeople are scarce

better in this quickness to censure - especially such as look to
the tobacco viewing. Lawrence Hay's place has something to do
with that scandal."

"I am glad, sister Alice, you give me an argument to indulge
my own secret wish," replied Blanche; "for I like not to believe
harsh reports against any of our province. And so, that is at an
end. Alack! - here is another matter for counsel: Grace Blackiston
says Helen Clements is too young to be at my gathering: -
she has two years before her yet at school, and has only begun
embroidering. Oh, but I would as soon do a barefoot penance
for a month as disappoint her! - she is the wildest of all for a
dance, and looks for it, I know, - though she says never a word,
and has her eyes on the ground when we talk about it. - Ha, let
Grace Blackiston prate as she will, Helen shall be here! Fairly,
my gossip, - I will be mistress in my own house, I promise you!"

"There is room for all your friends, young and old," said
Alice; "and you should not stint to ask them for the difference
of a span or so in height. You are not quite a women yourself,
Blanche, - no, nor Grace neither, - although you perk yourselves
up so daintily."

"Would you have the gauger's wife, sister?" inquired Blanche,
with a face of renewed perplexity: "I think my dear Lady Maria
would be pleased if I bid the dame - for the gauger is a good
friend of his Lordship - hot-headed, they say, but that does not
make him the worse - and his dame takes it kindly to be noticed."

"Even as you will, Blanche, - it is a mark of gentle nurture
not to be too scrupulous with your questions of quality - a kind
neighbor will never disgrace your courtesy. But one thing, child,
your father will look to: - see that you avoid these Coodes and
Fendalls and even the Chiseldines. There is a feud between them
and the Proprietary, - and my Lord's friends are warm in the
matter, - your father amongst the rest."

"I protest they get no bid from me," said Blanche, as the
color mantled her cheek. "I hate them stock and branch - yes,
as my good lady hates them."

Blanche had scarcely uttered these words before the good
lady herself rode past the window. The maiden bounded forth
to receive her, and Alice with less precipitation followed.

"I come with pony and pillion," said the visitor as she was
assisted to the ground, and bustled into the parlor. "I could
not rest until I saw Blanche to know if all her biddings were
abroad. My pretty bird, pray look you to your task - you have
no time to lose: there are the families beyond Patuxent - and
our friends across the bay, - besides many at home that I know
have not heard from you yet. And here, sweet, I have brought
you some trinketry which you shall wear at the feast: a part is
for Grace Blackiston, and a part for you. You shall have the
choice, Blanche: - but whisht! not a word of it to Grace,
because I think she has a conceit to be jealous of your favor."

Whilst the two sisters welcomed the lady and responded to
her voluble communications in a tone of affectionate intimacy,
the contents of the work-bag were thrown open to view, and
successively gave rise to sundry discussions relating not only to the
objects presented, but also collaterally to the thousand matters
of detail connected with the festival, thus engrossing the first
hour of their interview, until the subject was changed by an
exclamation from Blanche, as she looked through the window.
upon the river -

"Oh, but here is a gallant sight! - see yonder hawk following
a heron. He wilt strike presently - the heron cannot get away.
Poor bird! how he doubles and drops in his flight to escape the
swift hawk; - but it is of no avail. I should almost say it was
sinful, - if it was not approved and followed by those I love best
- I should hold it sinful to frighten and torture a harmless heron

by such pursuit. There, the hawk has struck, and down comes
hawk and quarry to the water."

"It is his Lordship's hawk," said the Lady Maria, as she
looked out upon the river. "Derrick the falconer must be
abroad to-day with his birds: - and now whilst I speak, there
he is walking along the beach. And he is not alone neither: -
by that short mantle and that feather, Blanche, you may know a
friend."

The color rose on the maiden's cheek as she said, "It is
Albert, his Lordship's secretary."

"His eyes are turned this way," said the sister of the
Proprietary. "A wager he comes to the house in the next ten
minutes! - He would fain find some business with the Collector
- I know Master Albert's occasions: nay, do not flurry thyself,
my sweet Blanche."

"I wish the Secretary would come," returned the maiden;
"we have need of him; he promised to show me how it were
best to arrange my flower vases."

"Then you would do well to despatch a messenger to him,"
interrupted the Lady Maria, playfully; "do you not think he
might forget?"

"Indeed! Well, I should have thought that having occasion
to make you so many promises - for he is here at the Rose Croft
thrice a week at least - and every visit has its promise, or I
mistake - he would forget full one half."

"I deal but scantily in promises with the Secretary," replied
Blanche. "Master Albert's errands here are for pastime mostly."

"Ah, he does not forget," exclaimed the Lady Maria; "for
there I see the feather of his bonnet as he climbs up the bank, -
and now we have his head and shoulders; we shall get the whole

man anon, - and Master Benedict Leonard in the bargain, for I
see him trudging in the Secretary's footsteps, as he is wont to do;
his young Lordship has become the Secretary's shadow. And
there is Derrick behind. They are all bound for this haven."

As the lady spoke, the Secretary was seen from the window
with the heir apparent and the falconer on the verge of the bank
which they had just ascended. Benedict Leonard had a hooded
hawk upon his fist; and Derrick, waving a light rod to which a
small streamer or flag was attached, was busy in luring down the
bird that had just flown at the heron. Whilst the falconer
continued his occupation the Secretary and his young companion
entered the mansion.

Albert Verheyden's accost to the ladies was characterized by
a familiarity not unmixed with diffidence, and a momentary flush
passed across his cheek as, after saluting Mistress Alice, and
turning to Blanche, his eye fell upon the sister of the Proprietary. "I
did not expect to find my honored lady so early at the Rose
Croft," he said with a profound reverence. "It should have
been my duty, madam, to attend you, but I knew not of your
purpose; and the falconer being bent to fly the cast of lanerets
which Colonel Talbot lately sent to my Lord, would have me
witness the trial, and so I came with Master Benedict to see
this sport."

"Nay, Albert," replied the lady, "you should not have been
of my company even if you had sought permission. I come to-day
on no idle errand which might allow your loitering paces and
customary delays to gaze on headlands and meadows, whereby
you are wont to interrupt the course of your journey. The matter
of our present meeting has need of stirring feet, which go
direct to their work, - yours are not such. Still, Master Albert,
you shall not be useless to-day: - here is occupation to your
hand; Blanche is in much want of a penman, and as you are of

the writing craft, she would gladly enlist you in her service - that
is, if you have not been already marshalled and sworn under her
colors."

"Master Albert, our dear lady does but jest," said Blanche.
"She knows I had at first no need of better penman than myself,
and now have need of none, - for, in truth, my work was finished
ere she came. But your service I may command in a better
task. You did promise to bring me some device for my flower
stands."

"The joiner will have them here to-day," replied the Secretary.
"I have not failed to spur his industry as well as my own
invention to do your wish."

"Then all is done but the rendering of thanks," said Blanche,
"which yet I am not in the humor to do, having matter of quarrel
with you for that following of the poor heron which, but now,
we saw the hawk strike down, whilst you were a looker-on, and,
as we suspect, an encourager of the act. It was a cruel thing to
assail the innocent fowl, which, being native here, has ever found
friends in our house; - yes, and has daily fed upon the flat below
the garden. These herons scarce fly when I walk by them on the
beach. I wish the falconer had sought his quarry elsewhere than
amongst my harmless birds. You should have controlled him."

"I am deeply grieved," replied the Secretary. "Indeed, I
knew not of the bird nor whence he came: nor thought of it,
in truth. A feather of his wing should not have come to harm
had I been aware that he had ever pleased your eye. I am all
unskilled in these out-door sports, and have scarce worn out the
complexion of my school at Antwerp, where worldly pastimes were
a forbidden thought. A poor scholar of the cloister might go free
of blame if, in this sunny and gallant world, the transport of a
noble game should rob him of his circumspection. I thought of
naught but the glorious circling of the hawk and his swift and

"You speak more like a practiced cavalier than a scholar of
the cloister," said the sister of the Proprietary; "you have a
cavalier's love of the sport, Albert."

"It does not beseem me, madam," was the Secretary's reply
"to affect a pastime which belongs neither to my rank nor humble
means; but, in truth, dear lady, I do love hawk, and hound,
and steed. And when in my sequestered study - where, being
as I thought, destined to the service of the altar, I read mostly
of holy men and holy things, little dreaming that I should ever
see the world - it sometimes chanced, in my stray reading, I fell
upon a lay wherein deeds of chivalry were told; and then I was
conscious of a wish, I am now almost ashamed to confess, that
fortune might some day bring me better acquainted with that
world to which such deeds belonged. Oh! it has befallen now:
- that is, - I mean to say," continued the Secretary, checking
himself, as his flashing eye fell to the floor and a blush flitted
across his brow - "it has pleased Heaven to give me a kind
master in my good Lord, who does not deny me to look on when
these sports are afield."

"And if we did strike down the heron, Blanche Warden,"
said Benedict Leonard, saucily accosting the maiden, and showing
the hawk that was bound to his wrist - "what is a heron good
for but to be brought down? Herons were made for hawks -
yes, and for the hawks of the Proprietary above all others; for I
have heard say that every heron on the Chesapeake, within my
father's boundary, is his own bird: so Derrick has said a hundred
times. And there is my uncle Talbot, who flies a hawk better
than any other in the province - I don't care if Derrick hears me -
and has the best mews, - he says that these fire-arms have broken
up hawking in the old country; and he told me I must not let it

fall through when I come to the province; for my father, he
thinks, doesn't care much for it. I promise you in my time we
shall have hawking enough - chide as you like, Mistress Blanche.
It was partly for me that my uncle Talbot sent us this cast of
birds. Look at that laneret, Blanche, - look at her! Isn't that
a bird? Talk to me of a goshawk after that!"

"Benedict - nephew," interposed the Lady Maria, "why dost
thou fling thy bird so rudely? She brushes Blanche's cheek with
her wing. Pray, not so bold: Blanche will not like thee for
it."

"Blanche will never quarrel with me for loving my hawk,
aunt," replied the boy playfully. "Will you, mistress? A
laneret's wing and Blanche Warden's cheek are both accounted
beautiful in this province, and will not grow angry with each
other upon acquaintance."

"I know not that, Benedict," replied the maiden; "my cheek
may grow jealous of your praise of the wing, and mischief might
follow. She is but a savage bird, and has a vicious appetite."

"I will away to the falconer," said the boy. "It is but
wasting good things to talk with women about hawks. You
will find me, Master Albert, along the bank with Derrick, if you
have need of me."

"That boy has more of the Talbot in him than the Calvert,"
said the Lady Maria, after he had left the room. "His father
was ever grave from youth upwards, and cared but little for these
exercises. Benedict Leonard lives in the open air, and has a
light heart. - You have a book under your mantle, Master
Albert," continued the lady. "Is your breviary needful when
you go forth to practise a laneret?"

"It is a volume I have brought for Mistress Blanche," replied
the Secretary, as, with some evident confusion, he produced a
gilded quarto with clasps, from beneath his dress. "It is a

delightful history of a brave cavalier, that I thought would
please her."

"Ah!" exclaimed the sister of the Proprietary, taking the
book and reading the title-page - " 'La très joyeuse et plaisante
Histoire, composée par le Loyal Serviteur, des faits, gestes et
prouesses du bon Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche.' Ay, and a
right pleasant history it is, this of the good Knight Bayard,
without fear and without reproach. But, Albert, you know
Blanche does not read French."

"I designed to render it myself to Mistress Blanche, in her
native tongue," replied the Secretary.

"Blanche," said the lady, sharing her head, "this comes of
not taking my counsel to learn this language of chivalry long ago.
See what peril you will suffer now in journeying through this huge
book alone with Master Albert."

"I see no peril," replied the maiden, unconscious of the raillery.
"Master Albert will teach me, ere he be done, to read
French for myself."

"When you have such a master, and the Secretary such a
pupil," said the lady, smiling, "Heaven speed us! I will eat all
the French you learn in a month. But, Master Albert, if Blanche
can not understand your legend, in the tongue in which it is writ,
she can fully comprehend your music - and so can we. It is
parcel of your duty at the Rose Croft to do minstrel's service.
You have so many songs - and I saw you stealing a glance at
you lute, as if you would greet an old acquaintance."

"If it were not for Master Albert," said Alice, "Blanche's
lute would be unstrung. She scarce keeps it, one would think,
but for the Secretary's occupation."

"Ah, sister Alice, and my dear lady," said Blanche, "the
Secretary has such a touch of the lute, that I but shame my own
ears to play upon it, after hearing his ditties. Sing, Master

"I will sing to the best of my skill," replied Albert, "which
has been magnified beyond my deservings. With your leave, I
will try a canzonet I learned in London. It was much liked by
the gallants there, and I confess a favor for it because it has a
stirring relish. It runs thus:

'Tell
me not, sweet, I am unkind,
That
from the nunnery
Of
thy chaste breast and quiet mind
To
war and arms I fly.

'True,
a new mistress, now I chase,
The
first foe in the field;
And
with a stronger faith embrace
A
sword, a horse, a shield.

'Yet
this inconstancy is such
As
you too shall adore:
I
could not love thee, dear, so much
Loved
I not honor more.' "

"Well done! Well
touched lute - well trolled ditty! Brave
song for a bird of thy feather, Master Verheyden!" exclaimed the
Collector, who, when the song was finished, entered the room with
Cocklescraft. "That's as good a song, Master Cocklescraft -
the skipper, ladies - my friend of the Olive Branch, who has been
with me this hour past docketing his cargo: I may call him
especially your friend - he is no enemy to the vanities of this
world. Ha, Master Cocklescraft, you have wherewith to win a
world of grace with the petticoats! - you have an eye for the
trickery of the sex! Sit down, sir - I pray you, without further
reverence, sit down."

The skipper, during this introduction, stood near the door,
bowing to the company, and then advanced into the room with a
careless and somewhat overbold step, such as denotes a man who,
in the endeavor to appear at his ease in society, carries his acting

to the point of familiarity. Still his freedom was not without
grace, and his demeanor, very soon after the slight perturbation
of his first accost, became natural and appropriate to his character.

"Save you, madam," he said, addressing the sister of the
Proprietary, and bowing low, "and you, Mistress Alice, and
you, my young lady of the Rose Croft. It is a twelvemonth since
I left the port, and I am glad to meet the worshipful ladies of
the province once again, and to see that good friends thrive.
The salt water whets a sailor's eye for friendly faces. Mistress
Blanche, I would take upon me to say, without being thought
too free, that you have grown some trifle taller shall before I
sailed. I did not then think you could be bettered in figure."

The maiden bowed without answering the skipper's compliment.

"Richard Cocklescraft," said the Collector, "I know not if
you ever saw Albert Verheyden. Had he come hither before
you sailed? His Lordship's secretary."

"I was not so lucky as to fall into his company," replied
Cocklescraft, turning towards the Secretary, and eyeing him from
head to foot. "I think I heard that his Lordship brought new
comers with him. We shall not lack acquaintance. Your hand,
Master Verdun - I think so you said?" he added, as he looked
inquiringly at the Collector.

The Collector again pronounced the name of the Secretary
with more precision.

"Nearly the same thing," continued the skipper. "Master
Verheyden, your hand: mine is something rougher, but it shall
be the hand of a comrade, if you be in the service of worshipful
Master Anthony Warden, the good Collector of St. Mary's. I
know how to value a friend, Master Secretary, and a friend's
friend. You have a rare voice for a ballad - I pretend to have

an opinion in such matters - an excellent voice and a free finger
for the lute."

"I am flattered by your liking, sir," returned Albert Verheyden,
coldly, as he retired towards a window, somewhat repelled
by the too freely proffered acquaintance of the skipper, and the
rather loud voice and obtrusive manner with which he addressed
those around him.

"Oh, this craft of singing is the touchstone of gentility
now-a-days," said Cocklescraft, twirling his velvet bonnet by the
gold tassel appended to the crown. "A man is accounted
unfurnished who has no skill in that joyous art. Sea-bred as I am,
Collector - worshipful Master Warden - you would scarce believe
me, but I have touched lute and guitar myself; and passably
well. I learned this trick in Milan, whither I have twice gone in
my voyages, and dwelt there with these Italians, some good
summer months. That is your climate for dark eyes and bright
nights - balconies, and damsels behind the lattice, listening
to thrummers and singers upon the pavements below. And
upon occasion, we wear the short cloak and dagger. I have
worn cloak and stiletto in my travels, Master Collector, and
trolled a catch in the true tongue of Tuscany, when tuck and
rapier rung in the burden. The hot blood there is a commodity
which the breeze from the Alps has no virtue to cool, as it does
in Switzerland."

"We will try your singing craft ere it be long," replied the
Collector. "We will put you to catch and glee, with a jig to the
heel of it, Richard Cocklescraft. You must know, Blanche is
eighteen on the festival of St. Therese, and we have a junketing
forward which has set the whole province astir. You shall take
part in the sport with the townspeople, Master Skipper; and I
warrant you find no rest of limb until you show us some new
antics of the fashion which you have picked up abroad. You

shall dance and sing with witnesses - or a good leg and a topping
voice shall have no virtue! I pray you, do not forget to make
one of our company on the festival of St. Therese. Your gewgaws,
Richard, and woman's gear, could not be more in season;
every wench in the port is like to be your debtor."

"Thanks, Master Collector, I have a foot and voice, ay, and
hand, ever at the service of your good company. I will be first
to come and last to depart. - I have been mindful of the Rose of
St. Mary's in my voyaging," he said, in a respectful and lowered
tone, as he approached the maiden. "Mistress Blanche is never
so far out of my thoughts that I might come back to the port
without some token for her. I would crave your acceptance of a
pretty mantle of crimson silk lined with minever. I found it in
Dort, and being taken with its beauty, and thinking how well it
would become the gay figure of my pretty mistress of the Rose
Croft, I brought it away, and now make bold to ask - that is, if
it be agreeable to Mistress Blanche, and if I do not venture too
far - that I may be allowed to bring it hither."

"You may find a worthier hand for such a favor," said
Blanche, with a tone and look that somewhat eagerly repelled
the proffered gift, and manifested dislike at the liberty which the
skipper had taken - a liberty which was in no degree lessened to
her apprehension by the unaccustomed gentleness of his voice,
and the humble and faltering manner in which he had asked her
consent to the present. "I am unused to such gaudy trappings,
and should not be content to wear the cloak;" then perceiving
some reproof, as she fancied, in the countenance of her sister
Alice and the Lady Maria, she added, in a kindlier voice, "I
dare not accept it at your hand, Master Skipper."

"Nay," replied Cocklescraft, presuming upon the mildness
of the maiden's last speech, and pressing the matter with that
obtrusiveness which marked his character and nurture, "I shall

"Save you, madam," replied the skipper; "I should be sorry
Mistress Blanche should deem it to be incurring a debt."

"I have not been trained," said Blanche, with perfect self-possession
and firmness of manner, which she intended should put
an end to the skipper's importunity, "to receive such favors
from the hand of a stranger."

"You will, perchance, think better of it, when you see the
mantle," replied the skipper, carelessly; and then added with
a saucy smile, "Women are changeful, Master Collector; I will
bring the gewgaw for Mistress Blanche's inspection - a chapman
may have that privilege."

"You may spare yourself the trouble," said the maiden.

"Nay, mistress, think it not a trouble, I beseech you; I
count nothing a trouble which shall allow me to please your
fancy." As the skipper uttered this he came still nearer to the
chair on which Blanche was seated, and, almost in a whisper,
said, "I pray you, mistress, think not so lightly of my wish
to serve you. I have set my heart upon your taking the
mantle."

"Master Skipper, a word with you," interrupted the Secretary,
who had watched the whole scene; and aware of the annoyance
which Cocklescraft's rudeness inflicted upon the maiden,
had quietly approached him and now beckoned him to a recess of
the window, where they might converse without being heard by
the company. "It is not civil to importune the lady in this
fashion. You must be satisfied with her answer as she has given

it to you. It vexes the daughter of Master Warden to be thus
besought. I pray you, sir, no more of it."

Cocklescraft eyed the Secretary for a moment with a glance
of scornful resentment, and then replied in a voice inaudible to
all but the person to whom it was addressed. "Right! perhaps
you are right, sir, but when I would be tutored for my behavior,
he shall be a man who takes that duty on him, and shall wear a
beard and sword both. I needed not thy schooling, master
crotchet-monger!" Then leaving the Secretary, he strode towards
the maiden, and assuming a laughing face, which but awkwardly
concealed his vexation, he said, "Well, mistress Blanche, since
you are resolved that you will not take my mantle off my hands,
I must give it over as a venture lost, and so an end of it. I were
a fool to be vexed because I could not read the riddle of a
maiden's fancy: how should such fish of the sea be learned in so
gentle a study? So, viaggio, it shall break no leg of mine! I
will dance none the less merrily for it at the feast: and as for the
mantle, why it may find other shoulders in the port, though it
shall never find them so fit to wear it withal, as the pretty
shoulders of Mistress Blanche. Master Warden, I must take my
leave; my people wait me at the quay. Fair weather for the
feast, and a merry time of it, ladies! A Dios, Master Collector!"

The gaiety of his leave-taking was dashed with a sternness of
manner which all the skipper's acting could not conceal, and as
he walked towards the door, he paused a moment to touch
Albert Verheyden's cloak and whispered in his ear, "We shall
be better acquainted, sir;" then leaving the house he rapidly
shaped his course towards the town.

He had scarcely got out of sight before Blanche sprang from
her chair and ran towards her father, pouring out upon him
a volley of reproof for his unadvised and especially unauthorized
invitation of the skipper to the festival. The maiden was joined

in this assault by her auxiliaries, the Proprietary's sister and
Mistress Alice, who concurred in reading the simple-minded and
unconsciously offending old gentleman a lecture upon his
improvident interference in this delicate matter. They insisted that
Cocklescraft's associations in the port gave him no claim to such
a favor, and that, at all events, it was Blanche's prerogative to
be consulted in regard to the admission of the younger and gayer
portions of her company.

"Have you not had your will, my dear father," was the summing
up of Blanche's playful attack, "to your full content, in
summoning all the old humdrum folks of the province, even to
the Dominie and his wife, who have never been known to go
a merry-making anywhere, and who are both so deaf that they
have not heard each other speak this many a day? and now you
must needs be bringing the skipper hither."

"Lackaday, wench! what have I done to redden thy brow?"
interrupted Mr. Warden, with a face of perplexed good humor,
unable longer to bear the storm of rebuke, or to parry the
arguments which were so eagerly thrust at him; "I have made
mischief without knowing how! The skipper is a free blade, of
good metal, and of a figure, too, which, methinks, might please a
damsel in a dance, and spare us all this coil; his leg has not its
fellow in the province. You take me to task roundly, when all
the while I was so foolish as to believe I was doing you regardful
service."

"He has a wicked look, father," was Blanche's reply; "and
a saucy freedom which I like not. He is ever too bold in his
greeting, and lacks gentle breeding. He must come to me,
forsooth, with his mantle, as an especial token, and set upon me
with so much constancy to take it! Take a mantle from him!
I have never even seen him but twice before, and then it was in
church, where he claimed to speak to me as if he were an old

acquaintance! I will none of him nor his mantle, if he were fifty
times a properer man than he is!"

"Be it so, my daughter," replied the Collector. "But we
must bear this mishap cheerily. I will not offend again. You
women," he said, as he walked to and fro through the parlor,
with his hands behind his back, and a good-natured smile playing
over his features, "you women are more shrewd to read the
qualities of men, especially in matters of behavior, than such old
pock-puddings as I am. I will be better counselled before I trespass
in this sort again. But remember, Blanche, the skipper has
his summons, and our hospitality must not suffer reproach; so we
will e'en make the best we can of this blundering misadventure
of mine. For our own honor, we must be courteous, Blanche, to
the skipper; and, therefore, do thou take heed that he have no
cause to say we slight him. As I get old I shall grow wise."

Blanche threw her arms around her father's neck and imprinting
a kiss upon his brow, said in a tone of affectionate playfulness,
"For your sake, dear father, I will not chide: the skipper shall
not want due observance from me. I did but speak to give you
a caution, by which you shall learn that the maidens of this province
are so foolish as to stand to it, and I amongst the rest, that
they are better able to choose their gallants than their fathers,
- though their fathers be amongst his Lordship's most trusty
advisers."

"Now a thousand benisons upon thy head, my child!" said
the Collector, as he laid his hand upon Blanche's glossy locks, and
then left the apartment.

CHAPTER XV.

Friend
to the sea, and foeman sworn
To
all that on her waves are borne,
When
falls a mate in battle broil
His
comrade heirs his portioned spoil -
Chalice
and plate from churches borne,
And
gems from shrieking beauty torn,
Each
string of pearl, each silver bar,
And
all the wealth of western war.
ROKEBY.

AS the skipper strode
towards the town, his dogged air and
lowering brow evinced the disquiet of his spirit at what had just
occurred. He was nettled by the maiden's rejection of his
proffered gift, and a still deeper feeling of resentment agitated his
mind against the Secretary. Far other man was he than he was
deemed by the burghers of St. Mary's. In truth, they knew but
little more of him than might be gained from his few occasional
visits to the port in a calling which, as it brought him a fair harvest
of profit, laid him under a necessity to cultivate, for the nonce,
the good opinion of his customers by such address as he was
master of.

Cocklescraft belonged to that tribe of desperate men, until
near this period in the full career of their bloody successes, known
as "The Brethren of the Coast." His first breath was drawn
upon the billows of the ocean, and his infancy was nursed in the
haunts of the buccaneers, amongst the Keys of the Bahamas.
When but a lad, attending upon these wild bands in their expeditions

against the commerce of the Gulf, he chanced to attract
the notice of the famous Captain Morgan, whilst that most
rapacious of all the pirate leaders was preparing, at Jamaica, for his
incursion against Maracaibo. The freebooter was charmed with
the precocious relish for rapine conspicuous in the character of
the boy; and, with an affectionate interest, took him under his
tutelage, assigning to him a post near his person, rather of
pageantry than service - that of a page or armor-bearer, according
to the yet lingering forms of chivalry. The incredible bravery
of the buccaneers in this exploit, and their detestable cruelties,
were witnessed by this callow imp of the sea, with a delight and
a shrewdness of apprehension which gave to his youthful nature
the full benefit of the lesson. He was scarce two years older
when, in the due succession of his hopeful experience, he again
attended his patron upon that unmatched adventure of plunder and
outrage, the leaguer of Panama; and it was remarked that
amidst the perils of the cruise upon the Costa Rica, the toils of
the inland march over moor and mountain, and the desperate
hazards of the storming of the city, the page, graceful and active
as the minion of a lady's bower, and fierce as a young sea-wolf,
was seen every where, like an elfish sprite, tracking the footsteps
of his ruthless master. The history of human wickedness has not
a more appalling chapter than that which records the fate of the
wretched inhabitants of Panama in this assault; and yet, in the
midst of its shocking enormities, the gay and tasseled familiar of
the ruffian pirate chief tripped daintily through the carnage, with
the light step of a reveller, and pursued the flying virgins and
affrighted matrons, from house to house, as the flames enveloped
their roof trees, with the mockery and prankishness of an actor
in a masquerade. This expedition terminated not without adding
another item to the experience of the young freebooter - the only
one, perhaps, yet wanting to his perfect accomplishment. - The

Welsh Captain, laden with spoils of untold value, played false to
his comrades, by stealing off with the lion's share of the booty;
thus, by a gainful act of perfidy, inculcating upon the eager
susceptibility of the page an imposing moral, of which it may be
supposed he would not be slow to profit.

Such was the school in which Cocklescraft received the rudiments
of his education. These harsher traits of his character,
however, it is but justice to say, were, in some degree, mitigated
by a tolerably fair amount of scholastic accomplishment, picked all
in the intervals of his busy life amongst the scant teaching afforded
by the islands, of which the protection and care of his patron
enabled him to profit. To this was added no mean skill in music,
dancing, and the use of his weapon; whilst a certain enthusiasm
of temperament stimulated his courage and even whetted the
fierceness of his nature.

Morgan, having run his career, returned to England, a man
of wealth, and was knighted by the monarch, in one of those
profligate revels by which Charles disgraced his kingly state; the
page was, in consequence, turned adrift upon the world, as it is
usual to say of heroes, "with no fortune but his talents, and no
friend but his sword." Riot soon exhausted his stock of plunder,
and the prodigal licentiousness of "The Brethren of the Coast,"
forbade the gathering of a future hoard. About this date the
European powers began to deal more resolutely with the banditti
of the islands, and their trade consequently became more precarious.
They were compelled, in pursuit of new fields for robbery,
to cross the isthmus and try their fortunes on the coast of the
Pacific - whither Cocklescraft followed and reaped his harvest in
the ravage of Peru: but in turn, the Brethren found themselves
tracked into these remoter seas, and our adventurer was fain,
with many of his comrades, to find his way back to the coves and
secret harbors of Tortuga and the Keys, whence he contrived to

win a subsistence, by an occasional stoop upon such defenceless
wanderers of the ocean as chance threw within his grasp. The
Olive Branch was a beautiful light vessel, which, in one of his
sea-forays, he had wrested from a luckless merchant; and this
acquisition suggested to him the thought that, with such necessary
alterations as should disguise her figure and equipment, he might
drive a more secure, and, perchance, more profitable trade between
the Atlantic colonies and the old countries; so, with a mongrel
crew of trusty cut-throats, carefully selected from the companions
of his former fortunes, and a secret armament well bestowed for
sudden emergency, he set himself up for an occasional trader
between the Chesapeake and the coast of Holland. A lucky
acquaintance with the Cripple of St. Jerome's gave him a useful
ally in his vocation as a smuggler; the fisherman's hut, long
believed to be the haunt of evil spirits, admirably favored his
design, and under the management of Rob, soon became a spot
of peculiar desecration in popular report; and thus, in no long
space of time, the gay, swashing cavalier, master of the Olive
Branch, began to find good account in his change of character
from the flibustier of the Keys into that of smuggler and trader
of the Chesapeake. He had now made several voyages from St.
Mary's to the various marts of Holland and England, taking out
cargoes of tobacco and bringing back such merchandise as was
likely to find a ready sale in the colonies. His absence from port
was often mysteriously prolonged, and on his return it not
unfrequently happened that there were found amongst his cargo
commodities such as might scarce be conjectured to have been brought
from the ports of Europe, - consisting some times of tropical
fruits, ingots of gold and silver, and sundry rich furniture of
Indian aspect, better fitted for the cabinet of the virtuoso than
the trade of a new province. Then, also, there were occasionally
costly stuffs, and tissues of exceeding richness, such as cloth of

gold, velvets of Genoa, arras tapestry, and even pictures which
might have hung in churches. These commodities were invariably
landed at St. Jerome's Bay before the Olive Branch
cast her anchor in the harbor of St. Mary's, and were reshipped
on the outward voyage. The Cripple of St. Jerome's had a few
customers who were privileged at certain periods to traffic with
him in a species of merchandise of which he was seldom without
a supply at his command - chiefly wines and strong waters, and
coarser household goods, which were charily exhibited in small
parcels at the hut, and when the bargain was made, supplied in
greater bulk by unseen hands from secret magazines, concerning
which the customer was not so rash as even to inquire - for Rob
was a man who, the country people most devoutly believed, had
immediate commerce with the Evil One, and who, it was known,
would use his dagger before he gave warning by words.

The open and lawful dealing of the skipper, in the port of St.
Mary's, had brought him into an acquaintance with most of the
inhabitants, and as his arrival was always a subject of agreeable
expectation, he was, by a natural consequence, looked upon with
a friendly regard. His address, gaiety of demeanor, and fine
figure - which last was studiously set off to great advantage by a
rich and graceful costume - heightened this sentiment of personal
favor, and gave him privileges in the society of the town which,
in that age of scrupulous regard to rank, would have been denied
him if he had been a constant sojourner. Emboldened by this
reception he had essayed to offer some gallant civilities to the
maiden of the Rose Croft, which were instantly repelled, however,
by the most formal coldness. The skipper was not so practised
an observer as to perceive in this repugnance the actual aversion
which the maiden felt against his advances to acquaintance; and
he was content to account it a merely girlish reserve which
importunity and assiduous devotion might overcome. His vanity

suggested the resolve to conquer the damsel's indifference; and
as that thought grew upon his fancy, it, by degrees, ripened into
a settled purpose, which in the end completely engrossed his mind.
As he brooded over the subject, and permitted his imagination to
linger around that form of beauty and loveliness, - cherished, as it
was, during the long weeks of his lonely tracking of the sea, and
in the solitary musings and silent night-watches of his deck, - a
romantic ardor was kindled in his breast, and he hastened back
to the port of St. Mary's, strangely wrought upon by new
impulses, which seemed to have humanized and mellowed even
his rude nature: the shrewder observers were aware of more
gentleness in his bearing, though they found him more wayward
in his temper; - he was prouder of heart, yet with humbler
speech, and often more stern than before. The awakening of
a new passion had over-mastered both the ferocity and the levity
of his character. He was, in truth, the undivulged, anxious, and
almost worshipping lover of Blanche Warden.

When such a nature as I have described chances to fall into
the loving vein, it will be admitted to be a somewhat fearful
category both for the lady and the lover's rival. Such men are
not apt to mince matters in the course of their wooing.

This was the person who now plied his way towards the port,
in solitary rumination over two distinct topics of private grief,
each of a nature to rouse the angry devil of his bosom. He could
not but see that his first approach towards the favor of his mistress
had been promptly repelled. That alone would have filled
his mind with bitterness, and given a harsh complexion to his
thoughts; - but this cause of complaint was almost stifled by the
more engrossing sentiment of hostility against the Secretary.
That he should have been rebuked for his behavior by a man, -
and a man, too, who evidently stood well with the lady of his
love; taken to task and chid in the very presence of his mistress.

- was an offence that called immediately to his manhood and
demanded redress. Such redress was more to his hand than the
nicer subtleties of weighing the maiden's displeasure, and he turned
to it with a natural alacrity, as to a comfort in his perplexity. It
is the instinct of a rude nature to refer all cases of wounded
sensibility to the relief of battle. A rejected lover, like a child who
has lost a toy, finds consolation in his distress by fighting any one
that he can persuade himself has stood in his way, and he is made
happy when there chances to be some plausible ground for such a
proceeding. The skipper thought the subject over in every aspect
which his offended pride could fancy. At one moment the
idea of quarrel with the Secretary pleased him, and almost
reconciled him to the maiden's coldness; at the next he doubted
whether, after all, she had in fact designed to repel his friendship.
He vibrated between these considerations for a space in silence:
his pride quelled the expression of his anger. But by degrees his
quickened pace and sturdier step, and, now and then, that slight
shake of the head by which men sometimes express determination
made it plain that the fiery element in his bosom was rising in
tumult. At length, unable to suppress his feeling, the inward
commotion found utterance in words.

"Who and what is this Master Secretary that has set the
maiden of the Rose Croft to look upon me with an evil spirit? I
would fain know if he think himself a properer man than I. Does
he stand upon his fingering of a lute, and his skill to dance? -
Why even in this chamber-craft I will put it to a wager he is no
master of mine. Is he more personable in shape or figure? - goes
he in better apparel? or is that broken English of his more natural
to the province than my plain speech, that he should claim
the right to chide me for my behavior? Is it that he has a place
in the train of his Lordship? Have not I served as near to a
belted knight - lord of a thousand stout hearts and master of a

fleet of thirty sail? - ay, and in straits where you should as soon
expect to meet a hare as that crotchet-monger. A bookish clerk
with no manly calling that should soil his ruff in the space of a
moon! By St. Iago, but I will put him to his books to learn how
he shall heal the stroke of a choleric hand, when the time shall
serve to give him the taste of it! - Mistress Blanche would not
be importuned - indeed! And he must be my tutor to teach me
what pleaseth Mistress Blanche. He lied - the maiden did not
mislike my question; - she but hung her head to have it so openly
spoken. I know she does not set at naught my favors, but as
damsels from custom do a too public tender of a token. Old
Anthony Warden counts his friends by their manhood, and he has
shown me grace: - his daughter in the end will follow his likings,
and as the father's choice approves, so will hers incline. Am I
less worthy in old Master Warden's eyes than yonder parchment
bearer - that pen-and-ink slave of his Lordship's occasions? - he
that durst not raise his eye above his Lordship's shoe, nor speak
out of a whisper when his betters are in presence? What is he,
to put me from the following of my own will when it pleases me
to speak to any maiden of this province? - I am of the sea - the
broad, deep sea! she hath nursed me in her bosom, - and hath
given me my birth-right to be as proudly borne as the honors of
any lord of the land. I have a brave deck for my foot, a good
blade for my belt, the bountiful ocean before me, and a score of
merry men at my back. Are these conditions so mean that I
must brook the Secretary's displeasure or fashion my speech to suit
his liking? - We shall understand each other better, in good
time, or I shall lack opportunity to speak my mind: - I shall,
good Master Verheyden, - you have the word of a 'Brother of
the Bloody Coast' for that!"

Before the skipper had ceased this petulant and resentful self-communion,
he found himself in the neighborhood of the Catholic

chapel, nearly in front of the dwelling of Father Pierre, when the
good priest, who was at this moment returning from noon-day
service, took him at unawares with the salutation, -

"Peace be with you, son! - you reckon up the sum of your
ventures with a careful brow, and speak loud enough to make the
town acquainted with your gains, if perchance some of the chapmen
with whom you have dealing should be in your path. How
fares it with you, Master Skipper?"

"Ha, Mi Padre!" exclaimed Cocklescraft, instantly throwing
aside his graver thoughts and assuming a jocular tone. "Well
met; - I was on my way to visit you: that would I have done
yesterday upon my arrival, but that the press of my business would
not allow it. You grow old, Father, so evenly that, although I
see you but after long partings, I can count no fresh touch of time
upon your head."

"Men of your calling should not flatter," said the priest smiling.
"What news do you bring us from the old world?"

"Oh, much and merry, Father Pierre. The old world plies
her old trade and thrives by it. Knavery has got somewhat of the
upper hand since they have quit crossing swords in this new peace
of Nimeguen. The Hogan Morgans are looking a little surly at the
Frenchman for cocking his beaver so bravely; and our jobbernowl
English, now that they can find no more reason to throttle
each other, have gone back to their old sport of pricking the side
of our poor church. You shall find as many plots in London,
made out of hand and ready for use in one month, as would serve
all the stage plays of the kingdom for the next hundred years -
and every plot shall have a vile Papist at the bottom of it, - if
you may believe Oates and Bedloe. I was there when my Lord
Stafford was made a head shorter on Tower Hill. You heard
of this, Father?"

priest; "and deeply did it grieve my Lord to lose so good a
friend. Even as you have found it in England, so is it here.
The discontents against the holy church are nursed by many who
seek thereby to command the province. We have plotters here
who do not scruple to contrive against the life of his Lordship
and his Lordship's brother the Chancellor. Besides, the government
at home is unfriendly to us."

"You have late news from England?" inquired the skipper.

"We have, - and which, but that you are true in your creed,
I might scarce mention to your ear - the royal order has come to
my Lord to dismiss his Catholic servants from office - every one.
His Lordship scruples to obey. This, Master Skipper, I confide
to you in private, as not to be told again."

"To remove all!" said Cocklescraft. "Why it will sweep
off his nearest friends - Anthony Warden and all."

"Even so."

"There is fighting matter in that, upon the spot," exclaimed
the skipper. "I hope it may come up while I am in port! The
Collector, old as he is, will buckle on his toledo in that quarrel.
He has mettle for it; and I could wish no better play than to
stand by his side. Who is this Secretary of my Lord's private
chamber? I met him at the Collector's to-day."

"Master Albert Verheyden," replied the priest.

"I know his name - they told it to me there - but his quality
and condition, father?"

"You may be proud of his fellowship," said Father Pierre;
"he was once a scholar of the Jesuit school at Antwerp, of the
class inscribed 'Princeps Diligentiæ,' and brought thence by my
Lord. A youth, Master Cocklescraft, of promise and discretion
- a model to such as would learn good manners and cherish
virtuous inclinations. You may scarcely fail to see him at the

Collector's: the townspeople do say he has an eye somewhat
dazzled there."

"Craving pardon for my freedom, I say, Father Pierre, a fig's
end for such a model!" exclaimed the skipper, pettishly; "you
may have such by the score, wherever lazy, bookish men eat their
bread. I like him not, with his laced band and feather, his book
and lute: harquebuss and whinyard are the tools for these days.
I hear the Fendalls have been at mischief again. We shall come
to bilbo and buff before long. Your Secretary will do marvellous
service in these straits, Father."

"Son, you are somewhat sinful in your scorn," said
the priest, mildly; "the Secretary does not deserve this
taunt -"

"By the holy hermits, Father, I speak of the Secretary but as
I think. He does not awe me with his greatness. I vail no
top-sail to him, I give you my word for it."

"The saints preserve us from harm!" said the churchman.
"We know not what may befall us from the might of our
enemies, when this hot blood shall sunder our friends. In sober
counsel, son, and not in rash divisions shall we find our safety.
It does not become you, Master Cocklescraft, to let your tetchy
humor rouse you against the Secretary. It might warrant my
displeasure."

"Mea culpa, holy father - I do confess my fault," said the
seaman, in a tone of assumed self-constraint - "I will not again
offend; and for my present atonement will offer a censer of pure
silver, which in my travels I picked up, and, in truth, did then
design to give to the Chapel of St. Mary's. I will bring it to the
chapel, Father Pierre, as soon as my vessel is unladen."

"You should offer up your anger, too, to make this gift
acceptable," returned the priest. "Let thy dedication be with a
cleansed heart."

"Ha, Father Pierre," said the skipper, jocularly; "my conscience
does easily cast off a burden: it shall be as you command.
I did not tell you that whilst my brigantine lay in the
Helder, I made a land flight to Louvaine, where a certain Abbot
of Andoyne - a pious, somewhat aged, and thanks to a wholesome
refectory! a good jolly priest, - hearing I came from the province,
must needs send for me to ask if I knew Father Pierre de la Maise,
and upon my answer, that I did right well, he begs me to bring
his remembrance back to you."

"I knew Father Gervase," replied the priest with a countenance
full of benignity, "some forty ears ago, when he was
a reader in the Chair of St. Isidore at Rome. He remembers
me? - a blessing on his head! - and he wears well, Master
Skipper?"

"Quite as well as yourself," replied Cocklescraft. "Father,
a cup of your cool water, and I will depart," he said, as he
helped himself to the draught. "I will take heed to what you
have said touching the royal order - and by St. Iago, I will be a
friend in need to the Collector. Master Verheyden shall not be
a better one. Now fare you well, Father. Peregrine Cadger
shall have order to cut you off a cassock from the best cloth I
have brought him, and little Abbot the tailor shall put it in
fashion for you."

"You are lavish of your bounties, son," replied the priest,
taking Cocklescraft by both hands as he was now about to
withdraw. "You have a poor churchman's thanks. It gives me
comfort to be so considered, and I prize your kindness more
than the cassock. A blessing on thy ways, Master Cocklescraft!"

The skipper once more set forth on is way towards the port;
and with a temper somewhat allayed by the acting of the scene I
have just described, though with no abatement of the resentment

which rankled at the bottom of his heart, even under the smiling
face and gay outside which he could assume with the skill of a
consummate dissembler, he soon reached the Crow and Archer.
From thence he meditated, as soon as his occasions would permit,
a visit to the Cripple of St. Jerome's.

CHAPTER XVI.

"Who
be these, sir?"
"Fellows
to mount a bank. Did your instructor
In
the dear tongues never discourse to you
Of
the Italian mountebanks?"
"Yes,
sir."
"Why
here you shall see one."
"They
are quacksalvers,
Fellows
that live by vending oils and drugs."
VOLPONE.

THE council had been
summoned to meet on the morning following
that of the incidents related in the last chapter, and the members
were now accordingly assembling at the Proprietary mansion.
The arrival of one or two gentlemen on horseback with their
servants, added somewhat to the bustle of the stable yard, which
was already the scene of that kind of busy idleness and lounging
occupation so agreeable to the menials of a large establishment.
Here, in one quarter, a few noisy grooms were collected around
the watering troughs, administering the discipline of the currycomb
or the wash-bucket to some half score of horses. In a corner
of the yard Dick Pagan the courier and Willy o' the Flats,
with the zeal of amateur vagrants, were striving to cozen each
other out of their coppers at the old game of Cross and Pile;
whilst, in an opposite direction, Derrick was exhibiting to a group
of spectators, amongst whom the young heir apparent was a
prominent personage, a new set of hawk bells just brought by the
Olive Branch from Dort, and lecturing, with a learned gravity,

upon their qualities, to the infinite edification and delight of his
youthful pupil. Fox hounds, mastiffs, and terriers, mingled
indiscriminately amongst these groups, as if confident of that favoritism
which is the universal privilege of the canine race amongst
good tempered persons and contented idlers all the world over.
Whilst the inhabitants of the yard were engrossed with these
occupations, a trumpet was heard at a distance in the direction of the
town. The blast came so feebly upon the ear as, at first, to pass
unregarded, but being repeated at short intervals, and at every
repetition growing louder, it soon arrested the general attention,
and caused an inquiry from all quarters into the meaning of so
unusual an incident.

"I think that there be an alarm of Indians in the town!"
exclaimed the falconer, as he spread his hand behind his ear and
listened for some moments, with a solemn and portentous visage.
"Look to it, lads - there may be harm afoot. Put up your half-pence,
Dick Pagan, and run forward to seek out the cause of this
trumpeting. I will wager it means mischief, masters."

"Indians!" said Willy; "Derrick's five wits have gone on a
fool's errand ever since the murder of that family at the Zachaiah
fort by the salvages. If the Indians were coming you should hear
three gulls from Master Randolph Brandt's look-out on the Notley
road. It is more likely there may be trouble at the gaol with
the townspeople, for there was a whisper afloat yesterday concerning
a rescue of the prisoners. Truth, the fellow has a lusty breath
who blows that trumpet!"

"Ay, and the trumpet," said Derrick, "is not made to dance
with, masters: there is war and throat-cutting in it, or I am no
true man."

During this short exchange of conjectures, Dick Pagan had
hastened to the gate which opened towards the town, and mounting
the post, for the sake of a more extensive view, soon discerned

the object of alarm, when, turning towards his companions, he
shouted,

"Wounds, - but here's a sight! Pike and musket, belt and
saddle, boys! To it quickly; - you shall have rare work anon.
Wake up the ban dogs of the fort and get into your harness.
Here comes the Dutch Doctor with his trumpeter as fierce as the
Dragon of Wantley. Buckle to and stand your ground!"

"Ho, ho!" roared the fiddler with an impudent, swaggering
laugh. "Here is a pretty upshot to your valors! Much cry and
little wool, like the Devil's hog-shearing at Christmas. You
dullards, couldn't I have told you it was the Dutch Doctor, - if
your fright had left you but a handful of sense to ask a question?
Didn't I see both him and his trumpeter last night at the Crow
and Archer, with all their jingumbobs in a pair of panniers? Oh,
but he is a rare doctor, and makes such cures, I warrant you, as
have never been seen, known or heard of since the days of St.
Byno, who built up his own serving man again, sound as a pipkin,
after the wild beasts had him for supper."

The trumpet now sent forth a blast which terminated in
a long flourish, indicating the approach of the party to the verge
within which it might not be allowable to continue such a clamor;
and in a few moments afterwards the Doctor with his attendant
entered the stable yard. He was a little, sharp-featured, portly
man, of a brown, dry complexion, in white periwig, cream-colored
coat, and scarlet small clothes: of a brisk gait, and consequential
air, which was heightened by the pompous gesture with which
he swayed a gold-mounted cane full as tall as himself. His
attendant, a bluff, burly, red-eyed man, with a singularly stolid
countenance, tricked out in a grotesque costume, of which a
short cloak, steeple-crowned hat and feather, and enormous nether
garments, all of striking colors, were the most notable components,
bore a brass trumpet suspended on one side, and a box of no

inconsiderable dimensions in front of his person; and thus
furnished, followed close at the heels of the important individual
whose coming had been so authentically announced.

No sooner had the Doctor got fairly within the gate than he
was met by Derrick Brown, who, being the most authoritative
personage in the yard, took upon himself the office of giving the
stranger welcome.

"Frents, how do you do?" was the Doctor's accost in a strong,
Low Dutch method of pronouncing English. "I pelieve dis is
not de gate I should have entered to see his Lordship de Lord
Proprietary," he added, looking about him with some surprise to
find where he was.

"If it was my Lord you came to see," said the falconer,
"you should have turned to your right, and gone by the road
which leads to the front of the house. But the way you have
come is no whit the longer: we can take you through, Master
Doctor, by the back door."

"Vell, vell, dere is noding lost by peing acquainted at once
wid de people of de house," replied the man of medicine; "dere
is luck to make your first entrance by de pack door, as de old
saying is. I vas summoned dis morning to appear before de
council, by my Lord's order; and so, I thought I might trive a
little pusiness, at de same time, wid de family."

"I told you all," said Willy, with an air of self-importance at
his own penetration, "that this was a rare doctor. The council
hath sent for him! my Lord hath made it a state matter to see
him. It isn't every doctor that comes before the worshipful
council, I bow. Give him welcome, boys, doff your beavers."

At this command several of the domestics touched their hats,
with a gesture partly in earnest and partly in sport, as if expecting
some diversion to follow.

a bow, greatly pleased at these tokens of respect; "no capping
to me! Pusiness is pusiness, and ven I come to sell you tings
dat shall do you goot, I tank you for your custom and your
money, widout asking you to touch your cap."

"There is sense in that," said John Alward; "and since you
come to trade in the yard, Doctor, you can show us your wares.
There is a penny to be picked up here."

"Open your box, Doctor; bring out your pennyworths;
show us the inside!" demanded several voices at once.

"Ha, ha!" exclaimed the vender of drugs, "you are wise,
goot frents; you know somewhat! You would have a peep at
my aurum potabiles in dat little casket - my multum in parvo?
Yes, you shall see, and you shall hear what you have never seen
pefore, and shall not in your long lives again."

"Have you e'er a good cleansing purge for a moulting hawk?"
inquired Derrick Brown, whilst the Doctor was unlocking the box.

"Or a nostrum that shall be sure work on a horse with a
farcy?" asked one of the grooms.

"Have you an elixir that shall expel a lumbago?" demanded
John Alward: all three speaking at the same instant.

"Tib, the cook," said a fourth, "has been so sore beset with
cramps, that only this morning she was saying, in her heart she
believed she would not stop to give the paste buckle that Tom
Oxcart gave her for a token at Whitsuntide, for a cordial that
would touch a cold stomach. I will persuade her into a trade
with the Doctor."

"Oh, as for the women," replied a fifth, "there isn't a wench
in my Lord's service that has n't a bad tooth, or a cold stomach,
or a tingling in the ears, or some such ailing: it is their nature -
they would swallow the Doctor's pack in a week, if they had
license."

his commodities to heed the volley of questions which were poured
upon him all round, but having now put himself in position for
action, he addressed himself to his auditors:

"I vill answer all your questions in goot time; but I must
crave your leave, frents, to pegin in de order of my pusiness.
Dobel," he said, turning to his attendant, who stood some paces
in the rear, "come forward and begin."

The adjutant at this command stepped into the middle of the
ring, and after making several strange grimaces, of which at first
view his countenance would have been deemed altogether
incapable, and bowing in three distinct quarters to the company,
commenced the following speech:

"Goot beoplish!" - this was accompanied with a comic leer
that set the whole yard in a roar - "dish ish de drice renowned
und ingomprbl Doctor Closh Tebor" - another grimmace, and
another volley of laughter - "what ish de grand pheseeshan of de
greate gofernor of New York, Antony Prockolls, und lives in
Alpany in de gofernor's own pallash, wid doo tousand guilders
allowed him py de gofernor everich yeere, und a goach to rite, und
a body cart to go pefore him in de sthreets ven he valks to take
de air. All tish to keepe de gofernor und his vrouw de Laty
Katerina Prockolls in goot healf - noding else - on mein onor."
This was said with great emphasis, the speaker laying his hand
on his heart and making a bow, accompanied with a still more
ludicrous grimace than any he had yet exhibited, which brought
forth a still louder peal from his auditory.

He was about to proceed with his commendatory harangue,
when he was interrupted by Benedict Leonard. It seems that
upon the first announcement by the Doctor of the purport of his
visit, the youth, fearful lest his mother, who was constitutionally
subject to alarm, might have been disturbed by the trumpet, ran
off to apprise her of what he had just witnessed; and giving her

the full advantage of Willy's exaggerated estimate of the travelling
healer of disease, returned, by the lady's command, to conduct
this worthy into her presence. He accordingly now delivered
his message, and forthwith master and man moved towards
the mansion, with the whole troop of the stable yard at their
heels.

The itinerant was introduced into Lady Baltimore's presence
in a small parlor, where she was attended by two little girls, her
only children beside the boy we have noticed, and the sister of
the Proprietary. Her pale and emaciated frame and care-worn
visage disclosed to the practised glance of the visitor a facile
subject for his delusive art, - a ready votary of that credulous
experimentalism which has filled the world with victims to medical
imposture. In the professor of medicine's reverence to the
persons before him there was an overstrained obsequiousness,
but, at the same time, an expression of imperturbable confidence
fully according with the ostentatious pretension which
marked his demeanor amongst the menials of the household.
Notwithstanding his broad accent, he spoke with a ready fluency
that showed him well skilled in that voluble art by which, at
that day, the workers of wonderful cures and the possessors of
infallible elixers
advertised the astonishing virtues of
their compounds
- an art which has in our time only changed its manner of
utterance, and now announces its ridiculous pretensions in every
newspaper of every part of our land, in whole columns of
mountebank lies and quack puffery."

"This is the great Doctor," said young Benedict, who was
eager to introduce him, "and he has come I can't tell how far,
to see who was ailing in our parts. I just whispered to him,
dear mother, what a famous good friend you were to all sorts
of new cures. And oh, it would do you good to see what a box
of crankums he has in the hall! Yes, and a man to carry it,

with trumpet! Blowing and physicking a plenty now, to them
that like it! How the man bears such a load, I can't guess."

"Dobel has a strong back and a steady mule for his occasions,
my pretty poy," said the Doctor, patting the heir apparent
on the head, with a fondness of manner that sensibly flattered the
mother. "When we would do goot, master, we must not heed
de trouble to seek dem dat stand in need of our ministrations over
de world."

The lady's feeble countenance lit up with a sickly smile, as
she remonstrated with the boy. "Bridle thy tongue, Benedict,
nor suffer it to run so nimbly. We have heard, Doctor,
something of your fame, and gladly give you welcome."

"Noble lady," replied the pharmacopolist, "I am but a simple
and poor doctor, wid such little fame as it has pleased Got to
pestow for mine enteavors to miticate de distemperatures and
maladies and infirmities which de fall of man, in de days of Adam,
de august progenitor of de human races, has prought upon all his
children. And de great happiness I have had to make many
most wonderful cures in de provinces of America, made me more
pold to hope I might pring some assuagement and relief to your
ladyship, who, I have peen told, has peen grievously tormented
wid perturbations and melancholics; a very common affection wid
honorable ladies."

"Alack, Doctor, my affections come from causes which are
beyond the reach of your art," said the lady with a sigh. "Still,
it would please me to hear the cures you speak of. You have,
doubtless, had great experience?"

"You shall hear, my lady. I am not one of dat rabble of
pretenders what travel apout de world to cry up and magnify
dere own praises. De Hemel is mij getuige, - Heaven is my
chudge, and your ladyship's far renowned excellent wisdom
forbids dat you should be imposed upon by dese cheats and

imposters denominated - and most justly, on my wort! - charlatans and
empirical scaramouches. De veritable merit in dis world is humble,
my lady. I creep rader in de dust, dan soar in de clouts: it
is in my nature. Oders shall speak for me - not myself."

"But you have seen de world, Doctor, and studied, and served
in good families?"

"Your ladyship has great penetration. I have always lived in
friendship wid worshipful peoples. De honorable Captain
General Anthony Brockholls, de gofernor of de great province of
New York, - hah! dere was nopody could please him but Doctor
Debor. Night and day, my lady, for two years, have I peen
physicking his excellency and all his family: - de governor is
subject to de malady of a pad digestion and crudities which gives
him troublesome dreams. I have studied in de school of Leyden
- dree courses, until I could find no more to learn; and den I
have travelled in France, Germany, and Italy, where I took a seat
in de great University of Padua, for de benefit of de lectures of
dat very famous doctor, Veslingius, de prefect, your ladyship
shall understand, and professor of botany, a most rare herbalist.
And dere also I much increased and enriched my learning under
de wing of dat astonishing man, de grave and profound Doctor
Athelsteinus Leonenas, de expounder of de great secrets of de
veins and nerves. You shall chudge, honorable ladies, what was
my merit, when I tell you de University would make me Syndicus
Artistarum, only dat I refused so great honor, because I would
not make de envy of my compeers. Did I not say true when I
tell you it is not my nature to soar in de clouts?"

"Truly the Doctor has greatly slighted his fame," said the
Larly Maria apart to her kinswoman. "I would like to know
what you have in your pack."

"Worshipful madam, you shall soon see," replied the Doctor,
who now ordered Dobel, his man, into the room. "Here," he

said, as he pointed to the different parcels, "are balsamums,
panaceas, and elixirs. Dis is a most noted alexipharmacum
against quartan agues, composed of many roots, herps, and
spices; dis I call de lampas vitæ, an astonishing exhilirator
and promoter of de goot humors of de mind, and most valuable
for de rare gift of clear sight to de old, wid many oder virtues I
will not stop to mention. Dese are confections, electuaries, sirups,
conserves, ointments, odoraments, cerates, and gargarisms, for de
skin, for de stomach, for de pruises and wounds, for de troat, and
every ting pesides. Ah! here, my lady, is de great lapor of my
life, de felicity and royal reward - as I may say - of all my studies:
it is de most renowned and admired and never-to-be estimated
Medicamentum Promethei, which has done more penefactions
den all de oder simples and compounds in de whole pharmacopeia
of medicine. Your ladyship shall take but one half of
dis little phial, when you will say more for its praise dan I could
speak widout peing accounted a most windy, hyperbolical and
monstrous poaster - ha, waarachtig! I will speak noting. Dat
wise and sagacious and sapient man, de great governor and
captain, Antony Brockholls, has given me in my hand so much
as five ducatoons, - yes, my lady, five ducatoons for dat little
glass, two hours after a dinner of cold endives - Ik spreek a
waarachtiglik - I speak you truly, my lady: and now I give it
away for de goot of de world and mine own glory, at no more
den one rix dollar, - five shillings. I do not soar in de clouts?"

"Can you describe its virtues, Doctor?" inquired the lady.

"Mine honored madam, dey are apundant, and I shall not lie
if I say countless and widout number. First, it is a great enemy
to plack choler, and to all de affections of de spleen, giving sweet
sleep to de eyelids dat have peen kept open py de cares and
sufferings and anxieties of de world. It will dispel de charms of
witchcraft, magic and sorcery, and turn away de stroke of de evil

eye. It corroborates de stomach py driving off de sour humors
of de pylorus, and cleansing de diaphram from de oppilations
which fill up and torpefy de pipes of de nerves. And your ladyship
shall observe dat, as Nature has supplied and adapted particular
plants and herps to de maladies of de several parts of de
animal pody, as, - not to be tedious, - aniseeds and calamint for
de head, hysop and liquorice for de lungs, borage for de heart,
betony for de spleen, and so on wid de whole pody - dis wonderful
medicament contains and possesses in itself someting of all,
peing de great remedy, antidote and expeller of all diseases,
such as vertigine, falling sickness, cramps, catalepsies, lumbagos,
rheums, inspissations, agitations, hypocondrics, and tremorcordies,
whedder dey come of de head, de heart, de liver, de vena cave, de
mesentery or de pericardium, making no difference if dey be hot
or cold, dry or moist, or proceeding from terrestrial or genethliacal
influences, evil genitures, or vicious aspects of de stars - it
is no matter - dey all vanish pefore de great medicamentum.
You must know, my lady, dis precious mixture was de great
secret - de arcanum mirificabile - of dat wonderful Arabian
physician Hamech, which Paracelsus went mad wid cudgelling his
prains to find out; and Avicenna and Galen and Trismegistus
and Moderatus Columella all proke down in deir search to
discover de meaning of de learned worts in which Hamech wrote de
signification. De great Swammerdam, hoch! what would he not
give Doctor Debor for dat secret! - I got it, my lady, from a
learned Egyptian doctor, who took it from an eremite of Arabia
Felix. It was not my merit, so much as my goot fortune. I am
humble, my lady, and do not poast, but speak op't woord van een
eerlyk man."

"He discourses beyond our depth," said Lady Baltimore,
greatly puzzled to keep pace with the learned pretensions of the
quack; "and yet I dare say there is virtue in these medicines.

What call you your great compound, Doctor? I have forgotten
its name."

"De Medicamentum Promethei," replied the owner of this
wonderful treasure, pleased with the interest taken in his
discourse. "Your ladyship will comprehend from your reading
learned pooks, dat Prometheus was a great headen god, what
stole de fire from Heaven, whereby he was able to vivicate and
reluminate de decayed and worn-out podies of de human families,
and in a manner even to give life to de images of clay; which is
all, as your good ladyship discerns, a fabulous narration, or pregnant
fable, as de scholars insinuate. And, moreover, de poets
and philosophers say dat same headen god was very learned in
de knowledge of de virtues of plants and herps, which your
ladyship will remark is de very consistence and identification of de
noble art of pharmacy. Well, den, dis Prometheus, my lady -
ha, ha! - was some little bit of a juggler, and was very fond of
playing his legerdemains wid de gods, till one day de great
Jupiter, peing angry wid his jocularities and his tricks, caused
him to be chained to a rock, wid a hungry vulture always
gnawing his liver; and dere he was in dis great misery, till his pody
pined away so small dat his chain would not hold him, and den,
aha! he showed Jupiter a goot pair of heels, like an honest
fellow, and set apout to find de medicines what should renovate
and patch up his liver, which you may be sure he did, my lady,
in a very little while. Dis again is anoder fable, to signify dat he
was troubled wid a great sickness in dat part of his pody. Now,
my lady, see how well de name significates de great virtues of my
medicament, which, in de first place, is a miraculous restorer of
health and vigor and life to de feeble spirits of de pody: dere's
de fire. Second, it is composed of more den one hundred plants,
roots, and seeds, most delicately distilled, sublimed and suffumigated
in a limbeck of pure virgin silver, and according to de most

subtle projections of alchemy; and dere your ladyship shall see
de knowledge of de virtues of plants and de most consummate
art of de concoctions. And now for de last significance of de
fable: dis medicament is a specific of de highest exaltation for
de cure, which never fails, of all distemperatures of de liver; not
to say dat it is less potent to overcome and destroy all de oder
diseases I have mentioned, and many more. Dere you see de
whole Medicamentum Promethei, which I sell to worshipful
peoples for one rix dollar de vial. Is it not well named, my
lady, and superlative cheap? I give it away: de projection
alone costs me more den I ask for de compound."

"The name is curiously made out," said the lady, "and
worthily, if the virtue of the compound answer the description.
But your cures, you have not yet touched upon them. I long to
hear what notable feats you have accomplished in that sort."

"My man Dobel shall speak," replied the professor. "Da
great Heaven forpid I should pe a poaster to de ears of such
honorable ladies! Dobel, rehearse de great penefaction of de
medicament upon de excellent and discreet and virtuous vrouw
of Governor Brockholls -
Spreek op eene
verstaanbare wijze!"

"Hier ben ik,"
answered Dobel to his summons, stepping at
the same time into the middle of the room and erecting his person
as stiffly as a grenadier on parade: "Goot beoplish! dish ish
de drice renowned und ingomprbl Doctor Closh Tebor -"

"Stop, stop, hou stil! halt - volslagen
gek!" exclaimed the
Doctor, horrified at the nature of the harangue his stupid
servitor had commenced, and which for a moment threatened to
continue in spite of the violent remonstrance of the master, Dobel
persevering like a thing spoken from rather than a thing that
speaks - "Fool, jack-pudding! you pelieve yourself on a bank,
up on a stage before de rabble rout? You would disgrace me
before honorable and noble ladies, wid your tavern howlings, and

your parkings and your pellowings! Out of de door, pegone!"
The imperturbable and stolid trumpeter, having thus unfortunately
incurred his patron's ire, slunk from the parlor, utterly
at a loss to comprehend wherein he had offended. The Doctor
in the meanwhile, overwhelmed with confusion and mortified
vanity, bustled towards the door and there continued to vent
imprecations upon the unconscious Dobel, which, as they were
uttered in Low Dutch, were altogether incomprehensible to the
company, but at the same time were sufficiently ludicrous to
produce a hearty laugh from the Lady Maria, and even to excite a
partial show of merriment in her companion. Fortunately for
the Doctor, in the midst of his embarassment, a messenger
arrived to inform him that his presence was required before the
council, in another part of the house, which order, although it
deprived the ladies of the present opportunity of learning the
great efficacy of the Medicamentum
Promethei in the case of the
wife of Governor Brockholls, gave the Doctor a chance of recovering
his self-possession by a retreat from the apartment. So,
after an earnest entreaty to be forgiven for the inexpert address
of his man, and a promise to resume his discourse on a future
occasion, he betook himself, under the guidance of the messenger,
to the chamber in which the council were convened.

Here sat the Proprietary, and Philip Calvert, the Chancellor,
who were now, with five or six other gentlemen, engaged in the
transaction of business of grave import.

Some depredations had been recently committed upon the
English by the Indians inhabiting the upper regions of the
Susquehanna, - especially by the Sinniquoes, who, in an incursion
against the Piscattaways, a friendly tribe in the vicinity of St.
Mary's, had advanced into the low country, where they had
plundered the dwellings of the settlers and even murdered two or
three families. The victims of these outrages happened to be

Protestants, and Fendall's party availed themselves of the circumstance,
to excite the popular jealousy against Lord Baltimore
by circulating the report that these murders were committed by
Papists in disguise.

What was therefore but an ordinary though frightful incident
of Indian hostility, was thus exaggerated into a crime of deep
malignity, peculiarly calculated still more to embitter the party
exasperations of the day. This consideration rendered it a subject
of eager anxiety, on the part of the council, to procure the
fullest evidence of the hostile designs of the Indians, and thus not
only to enable the province to adopt the proper measure for its
own safety, but also confute the false report which had imputed
to the Catholics so absurd and atrocious a design. A traveller,
by the name of Launcelot Sakel, happened, but two or three
days before the present meeting of the council, to arrive at
the port, where he put afloat the story of an intended invasion
of the province by certain Indians of New York, belonging to
the tribes of the Five Nations, and gave as his authority for this
piece of news a Dutch doctor, whom he had fallen in with on
the Delaware, where he left him selling nostrums, and who, he
affirmed, was in a short space to appear at St. Mary's. This
story, with many particulars, was communicated to the Proprietary,
which induced the order to summon the doctor to attend
the council as soon after his arrival as possible. In obedience to
this summons, our worthy was now in the presence of the high
powers of the province, not a little elated with the personal
consequence attached to his coming, as well as the very favorable
reception he had obtained from the ladies of the household.
This consequence was even enhanced by the suite of inquisitive
domestics, who followed, at a respectful distance, his movements
towards the council chamber, and who, even there, though not
venturing to enter, were gathered into a group which from the

outside of the door commanded a view of the party within: in
the midst of these Willy of the Flats was by no means an
unconspicuous personage.

Lord Baltimore received the itinerant physician with that
bland and benignant accost which was habitual to him, and
proceeded with brief ceremony to interrogate him as to the purport
of his visit. The answers were given with a solemn self-complacency,
not unmixed with that shrewdness which was an essential
attribute to the success of the ancient quack-salver. He
described himself as Doctor Claus Debor, a native of Holland, a
man of travel, enjoying no mean renown in New York, and, for
two years past, a resident of Albany. His chief design in his
present journey, he represented to be to disseminate the blessings
of his great medicament; whereupon he was about to launch
forth into an exuberant tone of panegyric, and had, in fact,
already produced a smile at the council board by some high
wrought phrases expressive of his incredible labor in the quest of
his great secret, when the Proprietary checked his career by a
timely admonition.

"Ay, we do not seek to know thy merits as a physician, nor
doubt the great virtue of thy drugs, worthy Doctor; but in
regard thereto, give you free permission to make what profit of
them you reasonably may in the province. Still, touching this
license, I must entreat you, in consideration that my Lady Baltimore
has weak nerves, and cannot endure rude noises, to refrain
from blowing your trumpet within hearing of this mansion:
besides, our people," he added, looking archly towards the group
of domestics, some of whom had now edged into the apartment,
"are somewhat faint-hearted at such martial sounds."

"By my hand!" said Willy, in a half whisper to his
companions
in the entry; "My Lord has put it to him for want of
manners! - I thought as much would come from his tantararas.

Listen, you shall hear more anon. Whist! - the Doctor puts on
a face - and will have his say, in turn."

"Your very goot and admirable Lordship mistranslates de
significance of my visit," said the Doctor, in his
ambitious phrase;
"for although I most heartily tank your Lordship's bounty for de
permission to sell my inestimable medicament, and which - Got
geve het - I do hope shall much advantage my lady wid her weak
nerfs and her ailments, - still, I come to opey your most honorable
Lordship's summons, which I make pold to pelieve is concerned
wid state matters pefore de high and noble council."

"Well, and bravely spoken," said Willy; "and
with a good
face! - the Doctor holds his own, masters."

"We would hear what you can tell touching a rumor brought
to us by one Master Launcelot Sakel, whom you saw at Christian
Fort," said the Proprietary.

"There is the point of the matter," whispered Willy,
"all in
an egg shell."

"Dere is weighty news, my Lord," replied the Doctor.
"I
have goot reason to believe dat de Nordern Indians of New York
are meditating and concocting mischief against your Lordship’s
province."

"Have a care to the truth of your report," said
Colonel Talbot,
rising from his seat: "it may be worse for you if you be
found to trifle with us by passing current a counterfeit story,
churned into consistence in your own brain, out of the froth of
idle, way-side gossipings. We have a statute against the spreaders
of false news."

"Heigh, heigh! - listen to that," said Willy,
nudging one of
the crowd over whose shoulders he was peering into the room.
"There's an outcome with a witness! - there's a flanconade that
shall make the Doctor flutter!"

forgetful of mine respect for trute, dese honorable gentlemens
shall teal wid me as a lying pusy pody and pragmatical talebearer.
Your Lordship shall hear. It is put a fortnight ago,
when I was making ready for dis journey, in Albany, I chanced
to see in de town so many as two score, perhaps fifty Indians
who were dere trading skins for powder and shot. Dey reported
demselves to be Sinniquoes, and said dey came to talk wid de
tribes furder back, to get their help to fight against de
Piscattaways."

"Indeed? - there is probability in that report," said the
Proprietary: "well, and how had they sped? what was their
success?"

"Some of de Five Nations, - I forget de name of de tribe,
my Lord - it might pe de Oneidas - dey told us, promised to
march early de next season; in dere own worts, when de sap
pegin to rise."

"In what force, did they say?"

"In large force, my Lord. De Piscattaways, dey said, were
frents to my Lord and de English, - and so dey should make clean
work wid red and white."

"What more?"

"Dey signified dat dey should have great help from de Delawares
and Susquehannocks, who, as I could make it out, wanted
to go to war wid your Lordship's peoples at once."

"True; and they have done so. The insolencies of these
tribes are already as much as we can endure. Did they find it
easy to purchase their powder and lead in Albany? I should
hope that traffic would not be allowed."

"My Lord, de traders do not much stop, when dey would turn
a penny, to reckon who shall get de loss, so dey get de profit.
Dese same Indians I saw afterwards in de town of New York,
trading in de same way wid Master Grimes, a merchant."

"Mischief will come of this," said the Proprietary,
"unless it
be speedily taken in hand. What reason was given by the
Northern Indians for joining in this scheme?"

"I tink it was said," replied the Doctor, "dat
your Lordship
had not made your treaties wid dem, nor sent dem presents, dose
two years past."

"True," interposed the Chancellor; "we have
failed in that
- although I have more than once reminded your Lordship of its
necessity."

"It shall not be longer delayed," replied the Proprietary.
"You are sure, Doctor Debor, these were Sinniquoes you saw?"

"I only know dem by dere own report - I never heard de
name pefore. My man Dobel heard dem as well as me; wid
your Lordship's permission I shall ask him," said the Doctor, as
he went to the door and directed some of the domestics to call
the man Dobel.

It happened that Dobel, after his disgrace, had kept apart
from the servants of the household, and was now lamenting his
misfortune in a voluntary exile on the green at the front door
where Willy of the Flats having hastened to seek him, gave him
the order to appear before the council.

"Dobel, you are a made man," he said by way of encouragement;
"your master wants you to speak to their honors: and
the honorable council want to hear you, Dobel; and so does his
Lordship. Hold up your head, Dobel, and speak for your manhood
- boldly and out, like a buckler man."

"Ya, ya," replied Dobel, whose acquirements in the English
tongue were limited to his professional advertisement of Doctor
Debor's fame, and a few slender fragments of phrases in common
use. Thus admonished by Willy, he proceeded doggedly to the
council chamber, where as soon as he entered, the Proprietary
made a motion to him with his hand to approach the table, -

which Dobel interpreting into an order to deliver his sentiments,
he forthwith began in a loud voice -

"Goot beoplish! dish is de drice renowned und ingomprbl
Doctor -"

Before he had uttered the name, the Doctor's hand was thrust
across Dobel's mouth, and a volley of Dutch oaths rapped into his
ears, at a rate which utterly confounded the poor trumpeter, who
was forcibly expelled from the room, almost by a general order.
When quiet was restored, - for it may be imagined the scene was
not barren of laughter, - the Doctor made a thousand apologies
for the stupidity of his servant, and in due time received permission
to retire, having delivered all that he was able to say touching
the matter in agitation before the Proprietary.

The council were for some time after this incident engaged in
the consideration of the conspiracy against the Proprietary, of
which new evidences were every day coming to light; and it was
now resolved that the matter should be brought onto the notice
of the judicial authority at an early day.

The only circumstance which I have further occasion to notice,
related to a diversion which was not unusual at that day amongst
the inhabitants of the province, and which required the permission
of the council. It was brought into debate by Colonel Talbot.

"Stark Whittle, the swordsman," he said, "has challenged
Sergeant Travers to play a prize at such weapons as they may
select - and the Sergeant accepts the challenge, provided it meet
the pleasure of his Lordship and the council. I promised to be
a patron to the play."

"It shall be as you choose," said the Proprietary. "This
martial sport has won favor with our people. Let it be so
ordered that it shall not tend to the breach of the peace. We
commit it to your hands, Colonel Talbot." The council assented,
and the necessary order was recorded on the journal.

CHAPTER XVII.

Some
do call me Jack, sweetheart,
And
some do call me Jille:
But
when I come to the king's faire courte,
They
call me Wilfulle Wille.
THE
KNIGHT AND SHEPHERD'S DAUGHTER.

THE skipper's necessary
affairs in the port engaged him all the
day succeeding that of his interview with Father Pierre, and
therefore prevented him from making his intended visit to the
Cripple of St. Jerome's. When the next morning broke upon
him, the early bell of St. Mary's Chapel informed him of the
Sabbath, - a day seldom distinguished in his calendar from the
rest of the week. It was, however, not unheeded now, as it
suggested the thought that an opportunity might be afforded
him to gain a sight of Blanche Warden - and even, perchance,
an interview - at the service of the Chapel. In this hope he at
once relinquished his design of going to St. Jerome's, at least
until after the morning offices of the church were performed.
Accordingly, at an hour somewhat in advance of the general
attendance of the congregation, the skipper was seen loitering in
the purlieus of the Chapel, where he marked with an inquisitive
but cautious watchfulness the various groups that were coming
to their devotions. When at length his strained vision was able
to descry a cavalcade approaching from the direction of St.
Inigoe's, and he discerned the figures of Albert Verheyden and

Blanche dallying far in the rear of the Collector and his
daughter Alice, their horses almost at a walk, and themselves
manifestly engrossed in an earnest conference, he turned hastily
towards the church, and with a compressed lip and knitted brow
ascended the stair and threw himself into an obscure corner of
the little gallery which looked upon the altar. Here he remained
a sullen and concealed observer of the rites of the temple, - his
bosom rankling with uncharitable thoughts, and his countenance
clouded with feelings the most ungenial to the lowly self-abasement
and contrition of heart which breathed in every word
of the solemn ritual that addressed his ear.

The Collector's family entered the place of worship. The
Secretary still accompanied Blanche, knelt beside her in prayer,
opened her missal to the various services of the day, and tendered
the customary offices of familiar gallantry common to such an
occasion, with an unrebuked freedom: all this in the view of the
skipper, whose eye flashed with a vengeful fire, as he gazed upon
the man to whom he attributed the wrong he deemed himself to
have suffered in his recent interview with the maiden. The service
ended and the throng was retiring, when Cocklescraft planted
himself on the outside of the door. His purpose was to exchange
even but a word with the daughter of the Collector - at least to
win a recognition of his presence by a smile, a nod, the smallest
courtesy, - so dear to the heart of a lover. She came at last,
loiteringly with Father Pierre and Albert Verheyden. Perhaps
she did not see Cocklescraft in the shade of the big elm, even
although her father's weaker sight had recognized him, and the
old man had stepped aside to shake his hand. She passed on to
her horse without once turning her head towards him. The
skipper abruptly sprang from the Collector to help her into her
saddle, but Blanche had already Albert's hand, and in a moment
was in her seat. Cocklescraft's proffered service was acknowledged

by a bow and only a casual word. The Secretary in an
instant mounted his steed, and, with the maiden, set forth on
their ride at a brisk gallop. The Brother of the Coast, forgetful
of his usual circumspection, stood with folded arms and moody
visage, looking darkly upon them as they disappeared, and
muttering half-audible ejaculations of wrath. He was, after an
interval, roused from his abstraction by the hand of Father
Pierre gently laid upon his shoulder:

"You have forgotten the censer of virgin silver you promised
to offer at this shrine," said the priest in a grave voice. "It was
to be an offering for the sin of a wayward spirit of anger. Beware,
son, that thou dost no wrong to a brother."

"I have not forgotten the censer, holy Father," returned the
skipper, with an ineffectual effort to assume his usual equanimity.
"I have only deferred the offering - until I may give it," he added
in a stern voice, "with an honest conscience. You shall have it
anon. I have business now that stands in the way: - good morning
to you, Father." And with these words he walked rapidly
away.

In the afternoon Cocklescraft was seen plying his way from
the quay in a small boat, attended by two seamen who rowed
him to a point some five or six miles below the town, where he
landed, and set out on foot for St. Jerome's.

On the following morning, whilst the dawn yet cast its gray
hue over the face of the land, two men, in shaggy frize dresses,
arrived at the hut of The Cripple. They rode on rough, little
beach-ponies, each provided with a sack. The mastiff bitch eyed
the visitors with a malign aspect from her station beneath the
door sill, and by her low mutterings warned them against a too
near approach. They accordingly stood at bay.

"Curse on the slut!" said one; "she has the eye of a very
devil; - it might not be safe to defy her. Not a mouse is

stirring; - the old Trencherman is as still as his bowl. Were it
safe, think you, to wake him?"

"Why not?" demanded the other. "He will be in a passion
and threaten, at first, with his weapon; - but when he knows we
come to trade with him, I will warrant he butters his wrinkles as
smoothly with a smile as you could desire. Strike your staff,
Nichol, against the door."

"The fiend fetch me, if I venture so near as to strike, with
that bitch at the step. Try it yourself, Perry Cadger."

"Nay, and it comes to that, I will rouse him in another
fashion," said the other.

"Master Swale - Master Robert Swale - Halloo - halloo!"

"Rob, man, awake, - turn out for friends!" exclaimed the
first. The growl of the mastiff bitch was now changed into a
hoarse bark. Some stir was heard from the inside of the hut,
and, in a moment afterwards, the door was unbolted and brought
sufficiently open to allow the uncouth head and half dressed figure
of The Cripple to be seen. A short blunderbuss was levelled
directly in the face of the visitors, whilst an ungracious repulse
was screamed out in a voice husky with rage.

"Begone, you misbegotten thieves! What makes you here?
Do you think I am an ale draper to talk in every strolling
runagate of the night. Begone, or I will baptize you with a
sprinkling of lead!"

"I beseech you, Robert Swale," exclaimed the first speaker,
"turn your weapon aslant! You may do a deed of mischief
upon your friends. We are Nichol Upstake, and Peregrine
Cadger - friends, Rob, - friends, who have come to drive
bargains to your profit. Open your eyes, Master - put on your
glasses - we have gold in pocket, man."

"Ha, ha, ha!" chuckled the tenant of the hut; "thou art
astir, cronies! Ha, ha! I took ye for land loupers - sharks.

By the Five Wounds, I knew ye not! Have patience a space
and I will open."

When The Cripple had dressed himself he came swinging forth
in his bowl, and passing beyond the curtilage of his dwelling went
to the beach, whither he was followed by his two visitors, who
had now dismounted from their ponies. Here he halted, and
taking off his cap, exposed his bare head and loose white tresses
to the morning breeze which came somewhat sharply from the
water.

"Soh!" he exclaimed, "there is refreshment in that! It is
my custom to expel these night-cap vapors with the good salt
water breeze: that is a commodity that may reach the province
without paying duty to his Lordship! a cheap physic, masters.
Now what scent are you upon, Nichol Upstake? Perry Cadger,
man of sarsnet and grogram, I guess your errand."

"In truth, Robert Swale," said Upstake -

"No Robert Swale, nor Master Robert Swale," testily interrupted
the owner of the cabin; "none of your worshipful phrase
for me! You are but a shallow hypocrite to affect this reverence.
Rob of the Bowl is the best I get from you when your
longings are satisfied; ay, and it is said with a curl of your lip;
and you make merry over my unworthiness with your pot-fellows.
So, be honest, and give me plain Rob; I seek no flattery."

"You do us wrong, good Master Rob," interposed Peregrine
Cadger -

"To your needs," said Rob, sternly: "speak in the way of
your trade! You have no voice, nor I ear, for aught else."

"Then, in brief," said Nichol Upstake, "I would know if
you could supply me with Antigua to-day, or aqua vitæ, I care
not which?"

"If such a thing might be, where would you take it, Nichol?"
inquired Rob.

"Ay, to Warrington on the Cliffs; good! - and warily to be
borne? no hawk's eye upon your path?"

"It shall be by night, if you like it," said the dealer.

"Well, well!" replied The Cripple; "I can give you a little
of both, master: a flagon or so; some three or four. My hut is
small, and has a scant cellar. But the money in hand, Nichol
Upstake! Good gold - full weight - and a fair price, too, mark
you! I must have a trifle above my last market - ten shillings
the gallon on the brandy, and two more for the Antigua. Leave
your kegs, and see me again at sunset. The money in hand! the
money in hand! there is no trust in my commonwealth."

"It shall be so," said Nichol.

"And now, Master Cadger, what wilt? You have a scheme
to cozen dame and wench with gewgaws; I see it in your eye:
and you will swear upon book and cross, if need be, they have
stood you a wondrous hard purchase, even at the full three hundred
per cent. excess you purpose to exact above the cost; and
all the while it has come out of Rob's warehouse as cheap as
beggars' alms: ha, ha, ha! This world thrives on honesty! it
grows fat on virtue! knavery only starves. Your rogue in rags,
what has he but his deserts? Let him repent and turn virtuous,
like you and me, Perry, and his torn cloak and threadbare
doublet shall be fenced and lined to defy all weathers. Hark you,
master, I have camblets, satins, and velvets, cambric, and lawn -
choice commodities all. You shall see them in the hut."

"How came you by so rich an inventory, Rob?"

The Cripple turned a fierce eye upon the mercer, and with
one glance conveyed his meaning, as he touched the handle of his
dagger and said in a low tone,

"Do you forget the covenant between us? Peregrine Cadger,
you know I brook no such question."

The mercer stood for a moment abashed, and then replied:
"An idle word, Master Rob, which meant no harm: as you
say, honesty will only thrive. You shall find never a knave
that is not some part fool. I will into the hut to look at the
wares."

"Do so," said The Cripple. "You will find them in the box
behind the door. There is need that you leave me, so follow him,
Nichol. I have sudden business, masters, which it does not concern
you to witness. When you have seen what you desire, depart
quickly; leave your sacks and come back at sunset. I charge
you, have a care that your eyes do not wander towards my motions.
You know me, and know that I have sentinels upon your
steps who have power to sear your eye-balls if you but steal one
forbidden glance: away!"

The dealers withdrew into the hut, wondering at the abrupt
termination of their interview, and implicitly confiding in the
power of The Cripple to make good his threat.

"The Lord have mercy upon us!" said the mercer, in a smothered
voice, after they had entered the door; "The Cripple has
matters on hand which it were not for our good to pry into.
Pray you, Nichol, let us make our survey and do his bidding, by
setting forth at once. I am not the man to give him offense."

The cause of this unexpected dismissal of the visitors was the
apparition of Cocklescraft, whose figure, in the doubtful light of
the morning, was seen by Rob at a distance, on the profile of the
bank in the neighborhood of the Wizard's Chapel. He had
halted upon observing The Cripple in company with strangers,
and had made a signal which was sufficiently intelligible to the
person to whom it was addressed, to explain his wish to meet
him.

Rob, having thus promptly rid himself of his company, now
swung on his short crutches, almost as rapidly as a good walker

could have got over the ground, towards the spot where the
buccaneer had halted.

"Steer your cockleshell there to the right, old worm!" said the
freebooter, as Rob came opposite to the bank on which he stood.
"You shall find it easier to come up by the hollow."

"The plague of a foul conscience light on you!" replied The
Cripple, desisting from further motion, and wiping the
perspiration from his brow. "Is it more seemly I should waste my
strength on the fruitless labor to clamber up that rough slope, or
you come down to me? You mock me, sirrah!" he added, with
an expression of sudden anger; "you know I cannot mount the
bank."

"You know I can drag you up, reverend fragment of a sinful
man!" returned Cocklescraft, jocularly; "yes, and with all your
pack of evil passions at your back, besides. Would you hold our
meeting in sight from the window of the hut, where you have just
lodged a pair of your busy meddlers - your bumpkin cronies in the
way of trade? It was such as these that, but a few nights ago,
set his Lordship's hounds upon our tracks. Come up, man,
without further parley."

The Cripple's fleeting anger changed, as usual, to that bitter
smile and chuckle with which he was wont to return into a
tractable mood, as he said, -

"A provident rogue! a shrewd imp! He has his instinct of
mischief so keen that his forecast never sleeps. The devil has
made him a perfect scholar. There, Dickon, give me your hand,"
he added, when he came to the steep ascent which his machine of
locomotion was utterly inadequate to surmount. "Give me your
hand, good cut-throat. Help me to the top."

The muscular seaman, instead of extending his hand to his
companion, descended the bank, and taking the bowl and its
occupant upon his shoulder, strode upward to the even ground, and

deposited his load with as little apparent effort as if he had been
dealing with a truss of hay.

"Bravely!" ejaculated Rob, when he was set down. "I
scarce could have done better in my best day. Now what set
you to jogging so early, Dickon? Where do you come from?"

"From the Chapel," replied the other. "I came there from
the port last night, express to see you; and having no special
favor for the bed I slept on, I left it at the first streak of light to
go and rouse you from your dreams, and lo! there you are at one
of your dog and wolf bargains with the countryside clowns."

"Discreet knaves, Dickon, who have come to ease us of somewhat
of our charge of contraband: stout jerkins - stout and well
lined; rogues of substance - Nichol Upstake, the ordinary keeper
of Warrington, and Perry Cadger, the mercer of St. Mary's.
Seeing you here, I dismissed them until sunset. That Peregrine
Cadger is somewhat leaky as a gossip, and might tell tales if he
were aware that I consorted with you."

"I see them taking the road on their ponies," said Cocklescraft;
"we may venture to the hut. I am sharp set for breakfast,
and when I have a contented stomach, I will hold discourse
with you, Rob, touching matters of some concern to us both."

The Cripple and his guest, upon this hint, repaired to the
hut, and in due time the morning meal was supplied and
despatched. Cocklescraft then opened the purport of his visit.

"Has it ever come into your wise brain, Master Rob," he
asked, "that you are getting somewhat old; and that it might
behoove you to make a shrift at the confessional, by way of
settling your account? I take it, it will not be a very clean
reckoning without a good swashing penance."

we must part. I am tired of this wicked life. I shall amend,
and I come to counsel you to the like virtuous resolution. I will
be married, Robert Swale, Man of the Bowl!"

"Grammercy! you will be married! you! I spit upon you
for a fool. What crotchet is this?"

"I will be married, as I say, neither more nor less. Now to
what wench, ask you? Why to the very fairest and primest
flower of this province - the Rose of St. Mary's - the Collector's
own daughter. I mark that devil's sneer of unbelief of yours,
old buckler man: truer word was never spoke by son of the sea
or land, than I speak now."

"To the Collector's daughter!" ejaculated The Cripple in a
tone of derision. "Your carriage is bold in the port, but no
measure of audacity will ever bring you to that favor. Would
you play at your old game, and sack the town, and take the
daintiest in it for ransom? You know no other trick of wooing,
Dickon."

"By my hand, Rob, I am specially besought by the Collector
to make one at a choice merry-making which his daughter has on
foot for next Thursday. Ay, and I am going, on his set command,
to dance a galliard with Mistress Blanche. Oh, she shall
be the very bird of the sea - the girl of the billow, Rob! She
shall be empress of the green wave that nursed me, and the blue
sky, and the wide waste. Her throne shall be on the deck of
my gay bark: and my merry men shall spring at her beck as
deftly as at the boatswain's pipe!"

"You shall sooner meet your deservings," said Rob, "on the
foal of the acorn, with a hempen string, than find grace with the
Collector's child. Your whole life has been adversary to the good
will of the father."

"I know it," replied Cocklescraft. "I was born in natural
warfare with the customs and all who gather them; the more

praise for my exploit! I shall change my ways and forsake evil
company. I shall be a man of worship. We shall shut up the
Chapel, Rob; expel our devils; pack off our witches to Norway,
and establish an honest vocation. Therefore, Rob, go to Father
Pierre, repent of your misdeeds, and live upon your past gains.
You are rich and may afford to entertain henceforth a reputable
conscience."

"Do not pelter with me, sirrah! but tell me what this imports."

"Then truly, Rob, I am much disturbed in my fancies. I
love the wench, and mean to have her - fairly if I can - but after
the fashion of the Coast if I must. She does not consent as yet
- mainly because she has a toy of delight in that silken Secretary
of my Lord - a bookish, pale-checked, sickly strummer of stringed
instruments - one Master Verheyden, I think they call him."

"Ha!" exclaimed The Cripple, as a frown gathered on his
brow; "what is he? Whence comes he?"

"His Lordship's chamber secretary," replied Cocklescraft;
"brought hither I know not when, nor whence. A silent-paced,
priestly pattern of modesty, who feeds on the favor of his betters,
as a lady's dog, that being allowed to lick the hand of his mistress,
takes the privilege to snarl on all who approach her. I
shall make light work with him by whipping him out of my way.
Why are you angry, that you scowl so, Master Rob?"

"I needs must be angry to see thee make a fool of thyself,"
replied the master of the hut. "Verheyden - his Lordship's
secretary!" he muttered to himself. "No, no! it would be a
folly to think it."

"Mutter as you will, Rob," said Cocklescraft; "by St. Iago,
I will try conclusions with the Secretary - folly or no folly! He
has taught the maiden," he added, with a bitter emphasis, "to
affect a scorn for me, and he shall smart for it."

"Ha! thy spirit is ever for undoing!" exclaimed Rob, suddenly
changing his mood, and forcing a harsh laugh of derision.
"Mischief is your proper element - your food, your repose, your
luxury. Well, if you must take on a new life, and strive to be
worshipful, I would counsel you to begin it with some deed of
charity, not strife. I had as well make my lecture to a young
wolf! Ha, Dickon, you will be a prospering pupil to the master
that teaches you the virtue of charity! Such rede will be welcome
to you as water to your shoes! I have scanned you in all
your humors!"

"I spurn upon your advice, and will not be scorned, old
man!" said Cocklescraft, angrily. "The maiden shall be mine,
though I pluck her from beneath her father's blazing roof tree;
and then farewell to the province, and to you! Mark you that!
I come not to be taunted with your ill-favored speech! My men
shall be withdrawn from the Chapel. I will put them on worthier
service than to minister to your greediness."

"Hot-brained, silly idiot - thou drivelling fool!" shouted Rob.
"Do you not know that I can put you in the dust and trample
on you as a caitiff? that I can drive you from the province as a
vile outlaw? Are you such a dizzard as to tempt my anger? If
you would thrive even in your villainous wooing, have a care not
to provoke my displeasure! One word from me, and not a man
paces your deck: you go abroad unattended, stiverless - a
fugitive, with hue and cry at your heels. How dar'st thou reprove
me, boy?"

"Your hand, Rob," said Cocklescraft, relenting. "You say
no more than my folly warrants: I am a wanton fool: your pardon
- let there be peace between us."

"Art reasonable again! Bravely confessed, Dickon! I forgive
your rash speech. Now go your ways, and the Foul One
speed thee! I have naught to counsel, either for strife or peace,

since you have neither wit, wisdom, nor patience for sober advice
against the current of your will. It will not be long before this
maimed trunk shall sink into its natural resting place - and it
matters not to me how my remnant of time be spent - whether
in hoarding or keeping. The world will find me an heir to
squander what little store it hath pleased my fortune to gather.
So go your ways."

"I will see you again, friend Rob," said the buccaneer. "I
have matter to look after at the Chapel, and then shall get back
to the port, to drive my suit to a speedy issue. I came here but
in honest dealing with you, to give you friendly notice of my
design, and perchance, to get your aid. You have no counsel for
me? It is well; my own head and arm shall befriend me; they
have stood me instead in straits more doubtful than this: farewell
- farewell!"

As the skipper stepped along the beach, Rob planted himself
in the door of the hut and looked after him for some moments,
nodding his head significantly towards him, and muttering in a
cynical undertone, "Go thy ways, snake of the sea, spawn of a
water devil! You married! ha, ha! Your lady gay shall have
a sweetened cup in you: and your wooing shall be tender and
gentle - yea, as the appetite of the sword-fish. It shall be festival
wooing - all in the light - in the light - of the bride's own
blazing roof: a dainty wolf! a most tractable shark! Oh, I
cannot choose but laugh!"

CHAPTER XVIII.

Some
with the ladies in their chambers ply
Their
bounding elasticity of heel,
Evolving,
as they trip it whirlingly,
The
merry mazes of the entangled reel.
ANSTER
FAIR.

"You
wear a sword, sir, and so do I!"
"Well,
sir!"
"You
know the use, sir, of a sword?"
"I
do - to whip a knave, sir."
THE HUNCHBACK.

THE festival of St.
Therese, Blanche's birth-day, so anxiously
looked for by the younger inhabitants of St. Mary's, and scarcely
less heartily welcomed by the elder, at length came round. Towards
sunset of an evening, mild in temperature and resplendent
with the glorious golden-tipped clouds of the October sky, the
air fraught with that joyful freshness which distinguishes this
season in Maryland, groups of gay-clad persons were seen passing
on the high road that led from the town to the Rose Croft.
The greater number, according to the usage of that day, rode on
horseback, the women seated on pillions behind their male escort.
Some of the younger men trudged on foot, and amongst these
was even seen, here and there, a buxom damsel cheerily making
her way in this primitive mode of travel, and showing by her
merry laugh and elastic step how little she felt the inconvenience
of her walk.

the coach was altogether unknown to the good people of the
province. Two of these vehicles were already within the dominions
of the Lord Proprietary; one belonging to his Lordship
himself, and the other to Master Thomas Motley, of Motley Hall,
member of the council, and sometime, during the Proprietary's
late visit to London, the Lieutenant-General of the province.
They were both of the same fashion, stiff, lumbering, square old
machines which had been imported some twenty years past, and
were often paraded in the street of St. Mary's with their bedizened
postillions and footmen, to the no inconsiderable enhancement, in
the eyes of the burghers, of the dignity and state of their possessors.
The bountiful foresight and supreme authority, it may
be said, of the Lady Maria had procured the aid of both of these
accommodations for the service of the evening, and they were,
accordingly, now plying backward and forward between the port
and the Collector's, for the especial ease and delectation of sundry
worshipful matrons whose infirmities rather inclined them to avoid
the saddle, and also for the gratification of such favorites of the
good lady, amongst the younger members of the population, as
she vouchsafed to honor by this token of her regard. By the
help of these conveniences a considerable number of guests had
been set down, at the scene of festivity, a full hour before sunset
- this early convocation being in conformity with the social
usages by which our ancestors were accustomed, on occasions of
jollity, to take time by the forelock.

The fame of the preparations at the Rose Croft had attracted,
in addition to the invited guests, all such mere idlers as the
humbler ranks of the townspeople supplied. These were chiefly
congregated about the principal gateway, drawn thither by their
desire to witness the coming of the visitors and to feast their eyes
with the display of holiday finery, which furnishes so large a fund
of interest to persons of this class. The crowd was composed of

serving-men and maids, idle apprentices and vagrant strollers, of
both sexes, with a due admixture of ragged, bare-legged boys,
who drove a business of some little gain, by taking charge of the
horses of such as dismounted at the verge of the enclosure that
surrounded the dwelling. Willy of the Flats, ordinarily but a
comrade of these groups, was now elevated into a character of
some importance on a theatre of higher honor, and having become
a personage, in their estimation, of no mean mark, did not
fail to let his consequence be seen and felt by his old compeers.
His rough shoes were greased to give them a more comely
exterior, his linen, new-washed, was ambitiously displayed upon
his breast, and his dilapidated garments, put in the best condition
their weather-stricken service would allow, were ostentatiously
freshened up with loots of party-colored ribbons, with, especially
upon his veteran beaver, flared in streamers, and audibly fluttered
in the zephyr that played across his brow. His fiddle, which was
soon to be called into active employment, was as yet suspended
to the kitchen wall in its green bag, and he strutted, in vacant
leisure, across the lawn in the presence of his envying cronies at
the gateway, with a vainglorious and self-gratulating step, that
showed, at least, how complacently he viewed his own exaltation,
even if he did not win as much worship from the spectators.

"Michael Mossbank," he said with a significant twinkle of
the eye; "we will make dainty work of it to-night - our junketing
shall be spoken of on both sides of the bay this many a long year.
The quality themselves do not often see the like, - and the simple
folks that have had the luck to be let in, will not forget it, or I
am mistaken, till the young down turns into old bristles. It is
like to be a most capersome and I may say melodious
merry-making. You had no light hand, Michael, in the ordering of
it."

"and you would never be forsworn. Order it, I did, - the outdoor
work, the kitchen-work, and the hall-work. Here was the
trimming of hedges to make all smooth at the bank side, and the
setting out of the lawn - not a straggling leaf shall you see upon
it; then the herbs for the kitchen, and the flowers for the hall!
Faith it was a handful of work for a week past. If it had not
been for Michael there would have been but tame sport to-night."

"Oh, but you have a great head, for such monstrous contrivances,
Michael: you are a gardener of gardeners! Adam was
of the trade before you, - but he had no jig-muster to set out in
his time: - his noddle could never have compassed it - or his five
wits would have buzzed till he grew blind, - and then all his
children would have given up the trade forever after. Oh, was
it not lucky for us that Father Adam was not put to the ordering
of a jig-muster?"

"Out, you beet-face," exclaimed the gardener, half angrily;
"Go put your gibes upon them that have an ear for such cracks!
Why do you stand grinning there with your flaunting ribons,
when there is work for you elsewhere? Look to yon gaping
beggars at the gate - they will presently so crowd the way that
no one may enter. Look to it, until you are wanted in the hall,
and you shall earn your penny-fee and broken victual the better
for it."

"Out upon you, Michael, yourself, for a churl, a cockle-weed!
I eat no broken victual at your hands: he would have small fare
who waited on your charity. A fiddler has as much worship as
a spade-lifter any day in the year - so, cock your nose at some
one below you!"

"A jest for a gibe, Willy," returned the gardener good-humoredly;
"a jest for a gibe! Play turkey-cock and swell to
your heart's content! - and when you have let off your spite go
to the gate where you are wanted."

The fiddler, after this short and ruffling encounter, having
regained his equanimity, and not displeased at the chance of
showing his importance to the loiterers about the gate, went to
the post assigned to him; where, with a self-complacent tone of
admonition, he addressed the assemblage, consisting of some
dozen auditors, with a discourse upon the behavior expected of
them on this interesting occasion both by himself and the master
of the feast.

Prominent amongst those upon whom this instruction was
bestowed, was one who regarded Willy with singular deference:
this was a lean and freckled lad, just on the verge of manhood,
whose unmeaning eye, relaxed fibre and ever present smile
denoted a stinted intellect, whilst his unoffending inquisitiveness
gained him admission to the skirts of all gatherings, whether
festive or sad. His restless foot and characteristic thirst for
knowledge habitually impelled him to seek the most conspicuous
post of observation, and he was now, accordingly, in the foremost
rank of Willy's hearers. Wise Watkin, (for by this name
he was familiarly greeted by young and old,) notwithstanding
the parsimony with which Nature had doled out to him the gift
of wit, was remarkable for his acquaintance with all classes of
persons, and for a certain share of cunning in picking up the
shreds of whatever rumor might chance, for the time, to agitate
the gossip of the town: he was still more remarkable for his
inordinate admiration of the fiddler.

Willy had just concluded his lecture at the gate, when his
attention was arrested by the rumble of wheels heard at a
distance, and by a cloud of dust which was seen rising in the
neighboring wood through which the road lay from the town.

"Hearken, neighbors, - his Lordship's coach!" he cried out
"We shall have it here presently, stuffed with people of worship.
Take ranks on each side of the road - quickly, I beseech you!

Now remember, at my signal, thus, - hands to your caps, lads, -
and wenches, sink: - do it comely and altogether."

"Ranks, ranks!" exclaimed Wise Watkin, who, with officious
alacrity, began to push the crowd into the array indicated by the
fiddler. "Heed Willy, and do as he bids. He knows what will
please the gentle-folks - hands to your caps!"

The motley ranks being formed according to the fiddler's
direction, awaited the arrival of those for whom this formal
salutation was designed.

Instead of the Proprietary's coach, a few moments disclosed
a cart with a little thick-set, shaggy pony attached to it, coming
at high gallop upon the road. On the bench above the shafts
was descried the jolly figure of the landlady of the Crow and
Archer, in the suit of green and scarlet in which we have
heretofore noticed her, playing the part of charioteer. Beside her sat
the terrified Garret Weasel, who, of too light bulk to maintain a
solid seat, jolted fearfully to and fro at every spring of the
vehicle. The pony had manifestly taken the speed of his journey
into his own discretion, and, with the shank of the bit gripped
between his teeth, and head curved sidewise, set his course
doggedly for the gate, in obstinate resistance of the dame, who, with
both arms at stretch, reddened brow and clenched teeth, tugged
at the reins, to turn him into a road that led, by a circuit,
towards the rear of the dwelling, whither she was now conveying
sundry articles of provision which she had undertaken to supply
for the feast.

"Friends, stop the beast!" shouted the treble voice of the
vintner as soon as he perceived Willy's corps - "stop us for the
love of mercy!"

As the crowd gathered to arrest the runaways, a wave of
the hand from the dame suspended their purpose. Her mettle
was roused by the contumacy of the pony; whereupon, in disdain

of the proffered aid, she gave loose rein to her beast, and, at the
same time plying her whip across his flanks, whilst her forlorn
helpmate, with eyes starting from their sockets, shouted aloud
for help, flew threw the gateway with increased velocity, - a
broad smile playing upon the face of the dame as she cried out
to the lookers on, - "Never heed the babe, a gay ride will mend
his health."

The address of the landlady, in safely passing through the
narrow way, elicited a general burst of applause, which rang in
shouts until she had fairly got the better of the self-will of her
four-footed antagonist, and had halted him, panting, at the back
of the house.

"By my head," exclaimed Willy, "it was no such great
mistake to set down Dame Dorothy's tumbrel for my Lord's
coach! If it had been a coach and six it could not have made
more dust or better speed."

"By my head, it could not!" shouted Wise Watkin, in a shrill
response to Willy's laugh. - "There's a tickle to the ribs! - that
fiddler Willy should take Dame Dorothy's cart and bow-necked
Bogle for my Lord's coach!" - and with this reflection he joined
in the chorus which echoed the general merriment.

Meantime the company continued to arrive. The coaches
came with new freights, and fresh parties on horseback alighted
at the gate. The Collector, more than usually precise in apparel,
stood at the door receiving the frequent comers with that
particularity of observance which so strongly marked the manners of
the past century; and group after group was ushered into the
hall. Here Mistress Alice, in sad-colored, silken attire, plain and
becoming in its fashion, gave welcome to her visitors; whilst the
Lady Maria, in character of what might be termed the patroness
of the revel, took post by her side. The neat little figure of the
Proprietary's sister received a surprising accession of bulk from

the style of her dress, which was according to a mode yet new in
the province. Her hair, laid flat and smooth upon the crown of
the head, was tortured into a sea of curls that fell over either ear
to the point of the shoulder, and to the same depth upon the
back, fringing her brow with light and fleecy flakes - the whole
powdered to a pearly, brownish hue, and inlaid with jewelled
bands. Her gown, both body and skirt, was of rich, flowered
tabby, whose coruscating folds rustled with portentous dignity, as
the lady moved slowly from place to place. This derived still
greater increment of stateliness from a stomacher and huge
farthingale, or hoop, made after a fashion which the queen of Charles
the Second, nearly twenty years before, had brought from Portugal
and introduced to the wondering eyes of the merry court
dames of England. The glory of this array gave a world of condescension
to the deep and awfully formal courtesy with which the
benevolent spinster made her salutations to the arriving troops;
who, in their turn, did full homage to the claims of the lady as the
presiding genius of the ball.

Blanche Warden, with a playfulness that vibrated between
the woman and the girl, abandoned the reception of the guests to
the elders of the family, and gave herself up to the guidance of
her prevailing humor, as she appeared, at one moment, in the hall
smiling amidst the congratulations of friends, and at another,
skimming across the lawn with a dozen of her school-mates in the
random flight of their wild fancies. Her dress was characterized
by the simplicity of a maiden as yet unambitious to assume the
privileges of womanhood. It consisted of a bodice of scarlet
velvet accurately fitted to her shape, and laced across the bosom
with silken cords, the tasseled extremities of which depended
almost to the ground; short white sleeves looped to the shoulder
by bands of the color of the boddice;
a skirt of white
lawn, and
a white slipper disclosing a foot and ankle of faultless proportions.

Her neck and shoulders, of matchless beauty, were given
uncovered to the evening breeze; and her glossy hair, constrained
above her brow by a fillet of ribbon, fell in rich volume down
her back. No jewel or jem
contributed its lustre to
grace her
person; but a boquet
of choice flowers planted on the
upper
verge of the boddice, and a white rose nestling
amongst
the
braided tresses on her forehead, better than carcanet or chain of
gold, diamond clasp or ear-ring, consorted with the virgin purity
and artless character of the wearer.

For a time, until the thickening shades of twilight and the
keenness of the evening air began to admonish them of the
comfort of the house, many of the guests, attracted by the unusual
mildness of the season, loitered about the door or strolled across
the grounds. Near the brink of the cliff which overlooked the
river might have been seen Captain Dauntrees amusing a group
of idle comrades. Here and there, a priest from the Jesuit House
of St. Inigoe's, in his long cassock, diversified the general aspect
of gay costumes, with a contrast grateful to the eye. The Proprietary,
with the buxom old host, Mr. Warden, and the aged
Chancellor, essayed to make merry with some venerable matrons,
who, with a sagacious presentiment of rheumatic visitations, were
effecting a retreat towards the chimney-corner of the parlor.
Talbot played the gallant amongst a half-score maidens, who
flitted along the margin of the cliff with a clamor that almost
amounted to riot, whilst in his wake, Master Benedict Leonard,
as gaudy as a jay, strutted swaggeringly along, apparently but to
indulge his admiration of his kinsman or to discharge some shot
of saucy freedom amongst the maidens.

With the lighting of candles the first notes of Willy's fiddle
were heard in a bravura flourish summoning the dancers to the
hall; and here the ball was opened, according to prescriptive
custom, with the country-dance, which was led off by no less a

personage than the Lady Maria, attended by the worshipful Collector
himself as her partner, the couple affording, both in costume and
movement, the richest imaginable portraiture of that "ancientry
and state" which so pleased the fancy of our progenitors. Other
dances of the same character, mingled with jigs and reels, succeeded,
and the company soon rose into that tone of enjoyment
which the contagious merriment of the dance diffuses over all such
assemblages. Cards, at that day, even more than at present,
constituted the sober resource of the elder and graver portions of
society of both sexes; and accordingly, by degrees, the Collector
had drawn off to the parlor a respectable corps of veterans, who,
grouped around the small tables, pursued this ancient pastime with
that eagerness which it has always inspired among its votaries,
leaving the hall to the unchecked mirth of the dancers.

"We heard it said that Master Cocklescraft, of the Olive
Branch, was to be here to-night," said Grace Blackiston, as she
encountered Blanche in the dance. "He told Father Pierre that
he was coming: and I have heard it whispered too, that he has
brought some pretty presents with him from abroad. I do not
behold him yet, and here is the evening half gone. Oh, I do
long to see him, for they say he dances so well. Is he not
coming?"

"He has been bidden," replied Blanche, "though not much
with my will: I care not whether he comes or stays away."

"Ha, Blanche has no eye but for Master Albert," said the
merry maiden, as she turned off and addressed herself to a
schoolmate who stood near; "yet a good dancer is not to be scorned
now-a-days, even if the Secretary were a better. And if he were
a better, he doesn't dance so much that we should content ourselves
with him. The Secretary has not been on the floor to-night,
but must be tracking and trailing Father Pierre about the
room. I do believe he does so for no purpose but to get sights

of Blanche Warden. I wonder if the dullard can be in love?
It looks like it."

The Secretary had, in truth, not yet mingled in the dance, but
from the beginning of the evening had loitered in the hall, apparently
watching the sports, and, now and then, communing with
Father Pierre, who, though a priestly, was far from being a silent
or grave looker-on. The benevolent churchman enjoyed a
commanding popularity with the younger portions of the society of
the province, and took so much pleasure in the manifestation of
it, that he was seldom absent from such of their gatherings as the
course of his duty would allow him to attend. For the same
reason he was generally to be found amongst the assemblages of
his children, as he called them, rather than mingling in the graver
coteries of those of his own period of life. On the present occasion
he had scarcely quitted the dancing apartment during the
evening, but stood by, a delighted spectator of the mirth that sparkled
in the faces of the happy groups, and heard with glee, almost
equal to their own, the wild laughter that echoed through the hall.

"They will presently begin to think Master Albert Verheyden
intends to set himself up for a philosopher," he said, as the Secretary
encountered him on the skirts of the dancers, the eye of the
priest beaming with a good-natured playfulness. "It is not usual
for a squire of dames to be so contemplative. My son, have you
given over the company of damsels to consort with an old priest
in so gay a scene as this?"

"Father, I would dance if there were need; but there is not
often an empty space upon the floor, nor want of those who seek
to fill it. It pleases me as well to discourse with you."

"Ah, benedictus! my son, it is not at your time of life that
you may be believed for such self-denial. More than one of the
maidens has put the question to me to-night, how this should come
to pass."

"Reverend father, though I will not deny I love the dance,
yet my nurture long made me a stranger to it; and now, since
my fortune has brought me into the world, I can scarcely conquer
the diffidence I feel to exhibit myself in such exercise."

"It is an innocent pleasure, son Albert, and a graceful.
There is healthful virtue in these laughing faces and active limbs.
St. Ignatius forbid that I should commend an unseemly sport!
but it has ever been my belief that the young men can find no
better instructors in the gentle perfections of charity and good
will than in their sport-mates amongst the maidens, - and so I
preach in my office: nor truly, may the maidens better learn how
to temper their behavior with the grace of pleasing - which has
in it a summary of many excellences, Master Albert - than in the
fellowship of our sons. Now, away with you! There is Blanche
Warden, who has sent her eye hither a dozen times, since we
have been speaking, to ask the question why I detain you from
your duty. Ah, blessed Therese! daughter Blanche does not
suspect I am chiding you for that very fault. Go, my son; it is
a shame to see you so little dainty in your company as to prefer
the cassock to the petticoat. Go, go!"

The lively gesture of the priest and his laughing face, as he
dismissed the Secretary from his side, attracted the notice of
Blanche, who, as Albert Verheyden approached her, saluted him
with -

"I am glad, Master Albert, that Father Pierre has seen fit to
bestow upon you such chiding as I would have given you myself.
I looked to you to help me through my ball to-night, and made
sure of it that you would lead out some of the maidens to dance;
for there are many here that have not yet had their turn: - there's
Mistress Hay, the viewer's sister, - she has sat there all night,
unregarded by mortal man. Ah, you are no true friend to desert
me in my need."

"Fair Mistress Blanche," replied the Secretary with a downcast
look, "I stand under your displeasure, and acknowledge my
fault. Indeed, my dull brain did not perceive your straits. I
waited for your bidding. You will pardon me that, waiting for
your command, I did not now presume to move without it. I will
go and lead forth the viewer's sister on the instant."

"Nay, stay now: I have saved you that errand. Captain
Dauntrees, upon my request, has proffered his hand, and, you may
see, they are now standing on the door ready to begin. You
shall find other duty."

"To dance with you, gentle mistress, if it like you."

"Now can it but like me, Master Albert? Oh, but I love
this dancing! And yet I much better like it as we have danced
many a time at the Rose Croft, on a winter's night, with our
household friends, and sister Alice to touch the spinner to a gay
tune, and you to teach us these new over-sea dances. These
were pleasant hours, and worth a world of these birth-day
junketings. Was it not so?"

"I love not the crowd," returned the Secretary with a lively
emotion. "But these fireside pastimes! you may praise them
with your most prodigal speech, and still fall short. We had no
holiday finery there to make proud the eye, nor glozing speech
to set up perfections which we did not own, nor studied behavior
to win opinion by; but what we were we seemed, and what we
felt we said. There is more virtue in these hearthside communings
than you may find in a hemisphere of shows."

"Ah, Master Albert, you have seen the gaudy world on the
other side of the sea, and can speak of it with assurance. Our
little, unfurnished province has but small pleasures for you: it is
a make-believe to praise our homely hearths."

"I speak, Mistress Blanche, the very breathings of my secret
heart, and tell you, though little I can boast of acquaintance with

that gaudy world, nothing have I seen, dreamed or tasted of
worldly pleasure, nor ever fancied of human happiness, that
might exceed the rich delight of those household scenes you
speak of."

"Were they not happy?" exclaimed Blanche, kindling into
a rapture excited by the fervor of the Secretary's earnest and
eloquent manner. "We owe so much of it to you, Master
Albert. Until you came into the province, we sometimes had a
weary hour at the Rose Croft: now, my father finds it weary
when you are away. I do not, - because I may surely count
that it shall never be long until you are here again. Mercy!
did we not stand here to dance? and see, our turn has
past
all
unheeded. We will to the foot again and take another turn."

It was as the maiden had said. In the engrossment of their
conversation they had been passed by in the country-dance. As
they now went to the foot to bring themselves into place,
Blanche whispered, "I rejoice the skipper is not come to-night:
his shrewdness has taught him, notwithstanding my father's good
will, that there is but little relish for his company at the Rose
Croft."

"You reckon without your host, Mistress Blanche," replied
the Secretary. "There is the skipper outside of the window;
and not well pleased with his own ruminations, if I may judge by
his folded arms and earnest eye."

Cocklescraft had been in the porch, looking in upon the scene,
some moments before he was observed; a crowd of domestics
having so pre-occupied the same station as almost to shield him
from the notice of those within. Whilst Blanche and Albert
now danced, he had planted himself in the door. His countenance
was grave, his attitude statue-like, and his eye sharply
followed the motions of the maiden. His dress, somewhat
outlandish, but still within the license of that period, was of a

Spanish fashion, profusely decorated with embroidery and set
off by jewels of exceeding richness. It was too ambitious of
ornament to be compatible with good taste, and manifested that
love of finery which is the infallible index of a tawdry and sensual
nature. The thoughtfulness of his countenance denoted an abstraction,
of which he was obviously not conscious at the moment,
for he no sooner caught the glance of Blanche than his whole
bearing underwent a sudden change; his eye sparkled, his lip
assumed a smile, and he became at once, in appearance, the gay
and careless reveller.

"God save the Rose of St. Mary's, the beautiful flower of
our New World!" he said, as he approached the maiden with
what she could not fail to note as an over-acted effort to assume
the cavalier. "Viva la Padrona! The damsels of Portugal will
teach you the meaning of that speech, pretty mistress. You have
a gallant company to-night," he added, as he cast his eyes around;
in doing which he recognized Albert Verheyden with a scarcely
perceptible nod of the head, and then turned his back upon him.
"By your leave, Mistress Blanche, I would dance with you at
your first leisure: the next dance, or the next, - I am your humble
servant for as long as you will. Shall it not be the next
dance?"

"I will tell you presently: I know not whether I may
dance again to-night, Master Cocklescraft," replied the maiden
coldly.

"There spoke the same tongue that refused my mantle!
Your cruelty, mistress, exceeds that beauty which all men so
boast of in this province. I wish I could bring you to look upon
me with compassion. Not even a dance with the queen of our
feast! A poor, rough-spoken sailor meets but little grace in a
lady's favor, when white-handed lute-players and ballad-singing
pages stand ready at her call. It is even as you will! damsels

have the privilege of denial all the world over, and I am too
much of a gallant to trouble you with an unwelcome suit -"

"I will dance with you, Master Cocklescraft," said Blanche
anxiously, as she saw the chafed spirit of the skipper working in
his face notwithstanding his effort to disguise it; whilst, at the
same time, she feared that his peevish allusion to the Secretary
might have been overheard: "call on me for the next set, and I
will dance with you."

"I thought your goodness would relent! 'Tis not in your
nature to be unkind. Gracia! I am at your feet, Senora - I
shall be on the watch. Scotch jig, reel, or country-dance, they
all come pat to me. I can dance the bransle, cinquepace, or
minuet - the corant, fandango, or galliard. You shall find me
at home, mistress, in every clime. Meanwhile, I will seek our
host, the worshipful Collector: I have not seen him yet."

This familiarity in the address of the skipper, and the importune
and even offensive freedom of his manner, were the result of
an endeavor to conceal a discontented temper under the mask
of gaiety. He had brooded over the incidents connected with his
late visit to the Rose Croft, until he had wrought himself into a
tone of feeling that might engender any extravagance of behavior.
The coldness of the maiden, we have seen, he imputed to causes
altogether independent of her good will or aversion; and he was,
therefore, determined to persevere in his aim to win her favor -
an enterprise which, in his harsh and rude estimate of the proprieties
of conduct, he did not deem in any respect hopeless. He
made sure, in his reckoning, of the friendship of the Collector,
from whom he had experienced those manifestations of
good-feeling which a hospitable and kind-hearted man flings around him
almost at random, but which Cocklescraft's self-flattering temper
magnified into indications of special regard.

thoughtfulness which alone was the cause of his tardy appearance
at the ball; and now that he had arrived, the same rumination
kept him vibrating, in a moody abstraction, between total silence
at one period, and an unnatural exhibition of mirth at the next,
giving to the latter that gairish
flippancy of manner
which was
so annoying to the maiden.

The cordial and frank civility with which the Collector recognized
the skipper amongst the guests, unfortunately contributed
to confirm him in the opinion of Master Warden's favor.

"Why, Richard Cocklescraft," said the host, upon looking up
from the cards which had been absorbing his attention, and
discovering the skipper, "are you here among the gray-beards?
Why should you flock to the old fowl when the young are
gathered in the hall? There is no gout in your toe. Get thee
back, man - we will have no deserters here! You promised to
bring a blithe foot for a jig, Master Cocklescraft; are you tired
of the sport already?"

"In truth, worshipful Master Warden," replied the skipper,
"I have, but within this half hour, arrived at the house; 'tis not
long since I left my brigantine, where matters on board detained
me."

"Ha, and you have not danced to-night. Then you owe
Blanche a turn of duty. Go quickly back, Richard, and foot it
with my girl. I have praised your leg, man, and said enough to
put you on your mettle. Back to the hall, Master Cocklescraft,
and say to Blanche I sent you for a straight-backed comrade to
hold her to the pledge of a reel."

"I am already bound to that pledge, and the time is at hand
to make it good. I but stole away for an instant to pay my duty
here," replied the skipper; and taking heart from the familiar
greeting of his host, returned to the dancing apartment with
lighter step and more cheerful face.

Blanche took the earliest moment to perform her engagement,
hoping by this alacrity to acquit herself of her obligation in a
manner least calculated to occasion remark, and soonest to
disembarrass herself of her partner's importunity. The dance, on
her part, was a reluctant courtesy, and was accordingly so
manifested in her demeanor, in spite of her resolution to the contrary.
Cocklescraft, however, was too much elated to perceive how ill
he stood in the maiden's grace. Scant encouragement will suffice
to feed the hopes of a lover; still more scant in a lover of such a
temperament as that of the heady seaman. His vanity was quick
to interpret favorably every word of civility that fell from Blanche's
lips; and the little that escaped her during the dance seemed
anew to brighten his hopes and inspire the zeal of his pursuit.

When the engagement was accomplished the maiden quickly
escaped from her distasteful suitor, by retiring from the hall and
mingling with other companions.

The guests were now summoned to supper. In a wing of the
dwelling-house the tables were loaded with dainty cheer, more to
be remarked for its capacity to please the palate, than for the
enticements which modern epicurism has invented to gratify the
eye. An orderly division of matrons, escorted by the Collector
and the elders of the province, moved forward at a measured
pace to make the first onslaught. These were followed, after an
interval, by active bevies of youthful revellers who thronged in
noisier array to the scene of assault.

In the housekeeper's apartment which looked into the supper-room,
sundry women, intent upon supplying the tables, were seen
ministering their office with scarcely less clamor than that which
echoed from the consumers of the feast. Here, in a post of
usurped control over the domestics, busy in rinsing glasses,
cleansing platters, adjusting pasties, and despatching comfits,
was the merry landlady of the Crow and Archer, whose saucy,

laughing, and not unhandsome face, grew lustrous with the
delight afforded by her occupation. Full as she was of the
appropriate business of her station, she still had time to watch
the banquet and make her comments upon the incidents which
transpired there.

"Ho, Bridget Coldcale! Bridget, this way look you!" she
exclaimed, as, with napkin in hand, and eye glistening with
delight, she beckoned to the thin and busy housekeeper. "If
you would live and laugh, pray come this way and take a peep
at the table. Who should we have here, as pert and proud as
if she was the lady of my Lord, but our gossip, Dolly Cadger?
Think of it, - the dame herself, in her own true flesh and blood,
amongst all these gentlefolk. Marry! Master Anthony Warden
was in straits to choose comers when he went to the mercer's
shop to find them. What a precious figure the sea-tortoise
makes with her yellow camblet, blue sarsnet, and green satin!
And that lace pinner stuck upon her head, with great lappets
flaunting down like hound's ears! I cannot but laugh my sides
into a stitch - it is such a dainty tire for a mercer's wife. It all
comes, you may swear, bran new out of the mercer's pack - for
the poor man had never the soul to deny her; there will be a
twelvemonth's bragging on the top of this. Good lack! yonder
is Dauntrees, like an humble bee, beside the viewer's sister!
The old pot-guzzler is never a man to flinch from his trencher.
Master Ginger, I know the measure of your stomach of old! I
have warmed your insides for you!"

"For the blessing of charity and the love of good works,
Dame Dorothy, some drink!" cried Willy, the fiddler, who had
just stolen from his post and elbowed his way into the housekeeper's
room. "Some drink, beautiful mistress; my throat is as dry
as a midsummer chimney; swallows are building nests in it: my
lips are dusty from long drought, and my elbow is not able to

wag for want of oil. Quick, good dame, or I shall crisp! Ha,
that is smooth and to the purpose," he exclaimed, after tossing
off a glass which the dame presented him. "Now, worthy hostess,
a bone to gnaw, for I am fearfully empty and like to cave in!
speed, dame: the dancers will be calling before I am filled."

"So, - Willy, set you down and comfort your stomach at your
leisure; there will be no haste to leave the supper-table this half
hour," replied the landlady, as she laid a plate before the fiddler,
furnished with good store of pasty; "take your time and make
a belly full of it, child - you have earned your provender. I
warrant, Willy, you never had a merrier pair of legs to 'Hunt the
Squirrel,' than our old Captain gave you to-night."

"Haw, haw!" shouted Willy; "Captain Dauntrees is a king
of Captains, dame. He has put a new spring in Master Warden's
old floor. I would have given a piece of eight out of my
own pocket, Mistress Dorothy - that is if I had so much - to have
seen you on the plank to-night footing it to 'Hunt the Squirrel'
with the Captain, or to 'Moll Pately,' or some such other merry
frisk as I could have made for you: it would have been as good
as a month's schooling to some of our gentlefolks."

"Me on the floor, indeed!" ejaculated the dame with an affected
laugh. "Faith, I might be there as well as some that crow
under a hood, and the ball suffer no shame neither. But Master
Warden does not drop his favor so low as a vintner's wife; he
stops short with the mercer. Willy, did you think before, that
the publican was of less worship than the peddler? Has Dame
Cadger better reason to hold up her bead than Dame Weasel?
Speak the truth, man, honestly."

"Master Perry Cadger has done with peddling more than a
year past," replied Willy; "he is now a established mercer, with
freehold in the town and trade in the common. And they do say,
Mistress Dorothy, that he makes money over hand; he will be

"Maybe it does; but I would like to know, has not Garret
Weasel as goodly a freehold in the town, as old a trade in the
common, and as full a pouch, as Perry Cadger? better, older, and
fuller, on my word! Now, where is that same mortal, my husband?"
inquired the dame, looking around her; "as I live, there
he is at the chimney-cheek, fast asleep in the midst of all this uproar!
The noddipeake is of too dull a spirit for such a place as
this. Wake him up, Willy! Garret, man!" she screamed, in a
tone which instantly brought him to his feet; "if you are weary,
put Bogle in the cart and get you home to bed; Matty will bring
the cart back and wait for me."

"I sleepy!" returned the husband, in a husky voice, and with
a bewildered drowsy eye which he endeavored to light up with a
laugh; "good woman, if you wait here until I grow sleepy, you
will be a weary loiterer, - that's all I have to say. Sleepy, dame!
If a man but wink his eye in the light, you would swear to a snore.
Adsheartlikens! I have been in many a rouse, wife, as you well
know; day-dawn is my twelve o'clock; chanticleer has crowed
himself hoarse many a time before he could get me to bed. I'll
see you out."

"Oh, chops, chops! here's an honest night's work for you!"
drawled out Wise Watkin, who had, ever since dark, occupied a
station at a window as a spectator of the dancing, and now had
pryingly thrust his head into the housekeeper's apartment; "here
are eatables and drinkables, wet and dry, to set any stomach a
laughing! Why, how now, Willy!" he ejaculated, with a chuckle,
as he discovered the fiddler regaling himself in the room, and
advanced towards him with the skulking step of a dog that is
doubtful of his reception; "you know where the fat and the sweet are.
Oh, Master Willy, you are a wise fiddler! their worships do well

"Out, you dottrel!" shouted Mistress Coldcale, in a key that
thrilled through the frame of the simpleton, and turned him
precipitately towards the door. "Havn't
we idlers
enough in our
way without you? Here, take this and begone," she continued,
as relenting she gave the witless intruder a plate of provisions.
"And as for you, Willy, the young folks are gathering again in the
hall, there will be a message for you presently."

"I stay for no message," replied the fiddler, as he rose and
shook the crumbs from him, and, with jaws still occupied,
withdrew from the apartment, followed by the admiring Watkin.

Upon the lawn in front of the house, Albert Verheyden had
erected a bower, which sheltered a rustic altar dedicated to St.
Therese, over which the name of Blanche had been wrought in
large letters, formed by a number of suspended lamps, which threw
a softened light for a considerable space around. Hither, after
supper, Mr. Warden, with a small party of his guests, had strolled
in the interval before the sports of the evening were resumed.
Cocklescraft had watched the opportunity, and now, somewhat
elated with wine as well as buoyed up with hope, had tracked the
Collector's footsteps until he found him separated some little space
from his company.

"Well met, Master Warden!" was the skipper's accost, so
familiarly whispered in the ear of his host as to produce a slight
movement of surprise. "Well met, Caballero! I have a word for
your private ear; this way if you please. It is somewhat cool, so
I will to my purpose roundly, in seaman's fashion."

"Speak, but quickly, Master Cocklescraft, and in plain phrase:
I shall like it the better."

"Master Warden, then, without mincing the matter, I would
have your leave to woo our beautiful maiden your daughter."

"Who, - what, - how?" interrupted the Collector, in a voice
that spoke his astonishment.

"Your daughter, Mistress Blanche: ay, and have your good
word to the suit: I love her like a true son of the sea - heartily
and in that sort would woo her."

"What is it you ask!" again spoke the host with increased
surprise.

"I have gear enough, Master Warden; no man may turn his
heel on me for lack of gold."

"How now, sirrah!" interrupted the Collector, as in this brief
space the storm had gathered to the bursting point: "You would
woo my daughter? - woo her? - my Blanche? Richard Cocklescraft,
have you lost your wits - turned fool, idiot; or is your
brain fevered with drink? You make suit to my daughter!
You win and wear a damsel of her nurture! Hear me. Your
craft is a good craft - I do not deny it; an honest calling, when
lawfully followed! a brave calling! but you sail on a false reckoning
when you hope to find favor with my girl Blanche. Your
rough sea-jacket, and your sparking license on the salt sea, mates
not with daughter of mine: - the rose-leaf and the sea-nettle!
You venture too largely on your welcome, sirrah!" he said, as his
anger began to show itself in his quickened speech, above his
effort to restrain it. "Master Skipper, there is insolence in this.
Hark you, sir! if you would not have me disown your acquaintance
and forbid you my house, you will never speak again of my
daughter."

With this brief rebuke of the skipper's aspirations the host
retreated hastily, and much out of humor, into the house, leaving
his guest in a state of bewilderment at the sudden and unexpected
issue of the interview. For a moment the seaman stood fixed on
the spot, his lips compressed, his hands clenched, and his eye
directed to the retiring figure of the Collector: at length beginning

to find breath and motion, he muttered, "So it has come to
this! he has been playing the hypocrite! It was but a holiday
welcome, after all! I shall note it for future remembrance. A
sea-nettle! By Saint Anthony he shall find me one! And that
sharking license he spoke of: he shall taste its flavor. This girl
has been trained in her dislikes. Oh, it is his sport to see me
foiled! I am brought here express to the ball by his persuasion,
- nay, command; I am caressed with courtesies, and even
challenged to romps with the maiden by his own lips. Who so free
in his admission here as I? - Richard Cocklescraft, forsooth! One
would have thought we had been fellow thieves in our time; there
was such cronying in his phrase: and then at last, when frankly
I tell him my purpose, I am to be huffed and hectored off the
ground with bullying speeches! He must bounce me as if I were
a cowardly boy. Oh, wind and wave and broad-sea sky! it was
not in your nursing I learned the patience to bear this wrong.
You are not too old yet, Anthony Warden, to be taught the hazard
of rousing a Bloody Brother! And as for you, gay maiden, dream
on of your bookish ballad-singer, Master Albert! I have a reckoning
to settle with him. It will be a dainty exploit to send
him, feet foremost, into the Chapel for a blessing. Luckily, Sir
Secretary, you owe me the worth of an unsatisfied grudge! Softly
- Master Verheyden himself! we meet at a fortunate hour."

The soliloquy of the skipper was interrupted by the approach
of the Secretary, who entered alone into the bower and paused a
moment before the little altar. A light tap on the shoulder made
Albert aware of the presence of Cocklescraft, and turning round
to confront the person who gave it, he was immediately greeted
with the accost, "I have a word for your ear, sir; - if you be a
man you will follow me out of this broad light. What I have to
say is better told where no one may observe us; follow me, sir."

as he stepped after the skipper toward the cliff: "I follow,
though I think more courtesy would befit your station. I have
once before marked and reproved your rudeness."

"I have no courtesies to waste on you," said Cocklescraft
sharply; "my business is with your manhood. You have the
maiden to thank that I did not bring you to instant account for
that insolent reproof you speak of. I come to deal with you upon
it now. Are you a man? Dare you meet me to-morrow, at noon
at Cornwaleys's Cross?"

"I dare meet you and any or all who have right to claim it
of me," replied Albert, promptly, "in the way of honorable
quarrel, if such be the meaning of your challenge. And although I
am ignorant of your degree, and may question your right to defy
me to equal contest, yet honored as you have been under this roof,
I shall rest content with that as sufficient pledge of your claim to
my attention. You shall find me, sir, punctual to your summons."

"I scorn the shallow claim," returned the skipper, "to such
honor as they who inhabit here may confer. The master of the
Olive Branch need not vail his top to a clerkish spinner of syllables,
even though the minion's writing-stool be found in my Lord's
own antechamber. I shall see you to-morrow at noon, at the
Cross."

"It is well! So, good night, Master Secretary!" rejoined the
skipper, scornfully, as he bowed to his antagonist and set forth to
seek his boat which lay fit waiting beneath the bank.

The Secretary turned towards the dwelling, somewhat disturbed
by the novel situation into which he had been so unexpectedly
thrown, but resolved to conceal the disquiet of his mind
and preserve the same outward composure which had marked his
deportment during the previous portion of the evening.

"Who lurks there?" he demanded in a stern voice, as he
perceived the figure of a man stealing off from his path
immediately in the vicinity of the spot where the interview with
Cocklescraft had terminated. "Who is it," he added, checking
himself and speaking in a gentler tone, "that plays hide and seek
here on the lawn?"

"Nobody," returned a voice from the shelter of the shrubbery,
"nobody but me, honorable Master Verheyden: me, Watkin,"
continued the half-witted lad, as he came visibly into the presence
of the Secretary. "Haven't we had a famous junketing? Oh,
what I have eaten and drank this blessed night! and what
dancing, Master Verheyden! was there ever such fiddling?
Willy is a treasure to the quality, I warrant you. Where have
you such another?"

"You should be looking on at the dancing," said Albert,
anxious to ascertain from the lad if he had heard any thing of
what had just passed between himself and Cocklescraft. "How
comes it, Watkin, that you are away from your post?"

"Oh, bless you, Master Verheyden, I have more on my hands
than you would guess in a week's striving. Now, what should
Mistress Coldcale say to me when I had gobbled up my supper,
but, Watkin, take this trencher and this pot down to the bankside,
and there feed the seamen of Master Cocklescraft's boat,
which you shall find at the landing below the garden. And so,
truly, there I found the hungry tarpaulins: and they did eat,
Master Albert, like fishes, and drink like wolves. It is Mistress
Blanche's birth-day, says I, so we will have no hungry bellies
here, comrades. And they laughed, and I came up the bank as
I went, running almost out of breath to see fiddler Willy strike
up again. And that's the way I fell pop upon you, Master Secretary."

Albert, as he slowly bent his steps towards the hall and mingled
again in the bustle of the scene.

As midnight drew near the elder guests had all retired, and
at last even the most buoyant began to yield to that weariness
of limb, by which Nature has set her limit to the endurance of
social pleasure, no less peremptorily to those in the prime of
youth than to such as wane in their days of decline.

CHAPTER XIX.

These
businesses of fighting
Should
be dispatched as doctors do prescribe
Physical
pills, not to be chewed but swallowed:
Time
spent in the considering deads the appetite.
SHIRLEY.

EARLY in the morning
after the ball, Willy of the Flats, who had
spent the night amongst the servants at the Rose Croft, strayed
forth from his truckle bed and betook himself to the margin of
St. Inigoe's creek, where he sat down to look abroad over the
waters at the rising sun, and to profit by the breeze as it cooled
his brow, still aching with the effects of the late revel. He had
not been long in this position before Wise Watkin, fresh from a
truss of hay in the barn, espied him, and now hastened to take a
seat at his side.

"Well, lad of the clear head and mother wit, what has brought
you to the water side so early?" was Willy's question, as the
obsequious Watkin came into the presence of his patron.

"As I lay in the barn, Willy," replied Watkin, with a world
of gravity in his looks, "I heard first a hem, and then a cough;
- and says I, that's Willy of the Flats, by the sound of his
throat. And so, I gets up and looks out through the cranny,
and, sure enough, there was you walking, with your hands in
your pockets and your hat set a one side like a gentleman: - and
then, says I, if Willy's stirring now so early, honest folks ought

to be abroad too. And with that, out I walked, he, he, he! -
and here I am sitting beside you, like another gentleman."

"Then, Wise Watkin, since we are so sociable, tell me what
you think of our ball last night?"

"Oh, grand! - grand, grand, Master Willy! Oh, you have
tickled Toby in the ribs, Master Willy! - you have done it as it
was never done before. People will talk of Willy of the Flats
after this. Mistress Blanche will talk of you, - Master Albert
will talk of you. I shouldn't wonder if his Lordship should send
you a purse of gold. I'm sure it's no more than folks look to see
done."

"And Mistress Coldcale did not stint to give you plenty to
stay your stomach, Watkin?"

"Plenty, troth, and to spare, Willy! Mistress Coldcale is
a mother of open hands. I could live under Mistress Coldcale
all my born days and never grudge what I did for her."

"Mistress Bridget will give us our breakfasts this morning,"
said the fiddler, patting the simpleton on the head; "and then,
Watkin, we must away. It will not be well taken if we tarry
too long after the feast."

"There is more sport on hand to-day, Willy. We must not
go till that be over. There is to be a set-to at Cornwaleys's
Cross to-day."

"A set-to?"

"I know all about it, Master Willy. I heard them appoint it."

"Heard who? What do you mean, Wise Watkins?"

"Listen, Willy; - it was as I shall tell you. When I carried
fodder to the boat last night, as Mistress Bridget ordered - I
call a full trencher of meat fodder, Master Willy - I comes back
by the way of the stile over the hedge, when what should I see
but two gentlefolks in a discourse, and what should I hear but
'I'll meet you, and you will meet me to-morrow morning at noon,

"Who are you speaking of, you slippery-witted fool?"
demanded the fiddler, sharply.

"Nay, if you tax me so keenly, Willy, - I will not answer.
I could have told you what Master Albert said to me afterwards,
when Master Cocklescraft went over the bank and into his boat
- but I will not, - for your sharpness."

"Now, Watkin, wise lad, are you not a fool to take in
dudgeon the freedom of an old friend? Come, there's a hand
- and in token of good will you will tell what all this story
comes to."

"As true as I am an honest man, Willy, I heard it. Master
Cocklescraft comes first to the hedge and Master Verheyden
following. Oh ho, says I, here's a state matter, and so I doused
my head under the hedge. Then Master Cocklescraft says to our
honorable Secretary, You will meet me if you are a man. And
the Secretary says, I am a man, and I will meet you at the Cross
- Cornwaleys's Cross. - When? says Cocklescraft. - At noon
to-morrow morning, says the Secretary. I'll go and get ready, says
Cocklescraft; - and with that off he marches. There will be a
pretty wrestling match for you, Master Willy! And I shouldn't
wonder if they should get to a pitch of the bar before they part:
Master Cocklescraft has a great arm for heaving a bar. You
and me, Willy, will be there to see it. Oh - I made up my mind
last night that the first thing I did this day was to tell you, that
you might see it. I know you love a wrestle, Willy."

"This is a matter to be looked to, Watkin, - I will cast it
over in my mind and tell you whether we shall go to it or not."

"Well," continued Watkin, "the Secretary turns himself
about to go to the house, and suddenly, out of the back of his
head, he spies me; and so takes me to account to say what I
lurked there for. - Oh, bless you, Willy, - I didn't tell him! - I

am no fool; - if I had let on about the wrestling I should never
have had the luck to get sight of it - these gentlefolks will not
be a country gaze - I know them: - the Secretary was not going
to tickle Toby in my ribs. All he got out of me was that I had
borne a trencher of fodder to the boatmen - and so he went his
way, and I went mine."

"You are a wise boy, Watkin, and all that I would have you
do now is to keep your counsel. Say not a word of this to living
man. We will have it clean to ourselves."

"My lips shall be as fast as a padlock, Master Willy. Mortal
man shall not screw it out of me."

The fiddler having extracted from Wise Watkin the particulars
detailed in this dialogue, was shrewd enough to interpret
them according to the real nature of the incident to which they
referred. He knew that the lad was scrupulous in telling the
truth, as well as he comprehended it, in all matters that came
under his observation, and Willy therefore had no reserve in the
assurance that there was on foot a quarrel between the Secretary
and the skipper, which was to be adjusted at Cornwaleys's Cross,
on that day. The nature of the quarrel he could not conjecture,
although he was not ignorant that the individuals concerned in
it, both held a relation to the maiden of the Rose Croft which
might very naturally breed ill will between them. It was indeed
a part of Willy's vocation to note such matters in the range of
his wanderings, - and he had not been so idle since the arrival of
Cocklescraft in the port, and especially during the festival of the
previous night, as to shut his eye or ear to the deportment of the
two young men in the presence of the damsel.

Upon revolving over the circumstances of Watkin's disclosure,
and maturely perpending, after his own manner, the pressure of
the case, he came to the wise conclusion that the best thing he
could do would be to communicate the whole story to Blanche

and leave the matter in her hands. Accordingly, as soon as the
maiden had taken her morning repast, he gained access to her in
the little bower of St. Therese, and there made her a confidential
relation of the particulars, not only as he received them from
Wise Watkin, but with such commentary as occurred to him to
belong to the probable state of the facts. Blanche received the
communication with the deepest emotion. Whilst the fiddler told
his story, her cheek grew pale - tears started in her eyes, her lip
quivered, her limbs, at last, became rigid, and she fainted away.
Before Willy, however, could quit her side to call in others to her
relief, she revived, and with a tottering step made her way into
the house. A brief pause enabled her to summon up her strength
and more composedly to address herself to the emergency in her
view. The thought that Albert Verheyden was placed in
circumstances of peril gave her as much alarm as if instant danger
threatened herself; and now, for the first time in her life, she
became conscious, how deep was the stake she had in his welfare.
Then, too, she felt no other conviction but that his jeopardy was
the direct consequence of his zeal in her service; - that the
skipper had brought him into the quarrel on some ground having
relation to her. Cocklescraft, besides, in her estimate of him,
was a reckless and ruthless man, of fierce passions and violent
hand, and she trembled to think that the gentle Master Albert
should be confronted with such an adversary. "But Master
Albert is brave," she said, "and will not brook that rough skipper's
rudeness; he chides his course
behavior, - as well
such
churl deserves to be chidden. Albert does not count the hazard
of his quarrel, but leaves that for timid maidens to do. Oh,
blessed virgin Therese!" she exclaimed as she cast her eye upon
the picture of the saint which was suspended on the wall of her
chamber; "take good Master Albert into thy care, and bear
him harmless through this peril. His quarrel cannot but be

just, and the saints will guard him as they ever guard the right."
Having come to this conclusion and taken heart at the
thought, she straightway resolved, as every maiden in similar
circumstances would resolve, notwithstanding the guardianship
of the saints which she had invoked, to fall upon some scheme, if
possible, to prevent the duel. With this view she called sister
Alice into a conference, and their joint conclusion was to make
known the matter to Mr. Warden. But the Collector had
already gone abroad, and time pressed, leaving but a few hours
for action. Their next resource was Father Pierre; and instantly
upon the thought of him, Alice sat down and wrote the reverend
priest a letter, narrating the brief story and imploring his instant
intercession by such offices as he might believe most effectual to
frustrate the purpose of the belligerents. When the letter was
ready, Willy of the Flats was summoned into the presence of the
ladies, and was strictly charged to hie him with all haste to
Father Pierre's dwelling, and to put the missive into his own
hands, as a matter of the utmost importance requiring his
immediate attention. To this charge was added a dozen alternatives
adapted to every contingency dependent upon Father Pierre's
possible absence or inability to act. Thus commissioned, Willy,
followed by his shadow, Wise Watkin, set forth for the town,
at a rate which kept the good-natured attendant in a half trot.

Whilst these things were going on at the Rose Croft, the
Secretary was not idle in his preparation for the issues of the
day. Albert Verheyden was, as I have already hinted, of an
ardent and impulsive temper, moved by a keen relish for enterprise,
and directed by a lofty tone of honor. His bookish and
half-clerical character, the result of the discipline of his school
and his early destination for the Church, gave him a gentle and
almost diffident motion, which strongly contrasted with the
warmth of his feelings, and the eagerness of his spirit. It was,

therefore, with a positive sense of pleasure, that he had seized
the opportunity to appear as the champion of Blanche Warden
in the first hostile passage that took place between the skipper
and himself - a pleasure resulting not less from the alacrity with
which he ever rendered service to the maiden, but also from the
instinct of a romantic nature that delighted in the thought of
matching its manhood with a formidable adversary. He had
never, however, as yet contemplated the reality of an appeal to
arms; and although in his course of accomplishment, as was the
fashion of that day, after he had renounced his purpose of serving
the Church, he had practised the use of his weapon, and even
attained to considerable skill in it, yet he had not brought himself
to look upon it as other than a light exercise which, like dancing,
was intended to fit him for the graceful service of the station he
was to fill. His ecclesiastical training was not yet so forgotten
as to leave him at perfect ease with himself in his present straits.
It was not, therefore, with apprehension, so much as with diffidence,
that he found himself now engaged in the appointment of
the duel. He awoke at the dawn of day, full of the thoughts
connected with the affair in hand; and in casting about for a fit
counsellor and friend in this emergency, he fixed his attention
upon Captain Dauntrees, as a man who would not only do him a
friendly turn, but as one well qualified to advise him how to comport
himself through the ordeal of the meeting. Having resolved
instantly to see the Captain, he arose, and before the domestics
were stirring about the Proprietary mansion, threw his cloak
over his shoulder, concealing under its folds his rapier, and
betook himself to the Fort. Being admitted by the sentry, he
hastened to the little parlor of the Captain's quarters, where he
arrived whilst that worthy was still snoring in his bed. The
master of the garrison, however, was soon awakened from his
slumber, by a servant with the announcement of his visitor, and

immediately afterwards threw open his chamber door, which
communicated with the parlor, and disclosed to the Secretary
his burly figure half attired, whilst he was yet busy in throwing
on his garments.

"Good morrow, Master Verheyden!" he said with a yawn,
scarcely half awake; "I take shame to myself for a laggard
to have so honorable a guest my teacher of good habits in early
rising. But the Collector's wine was drugged last night, and had
a virtue of sleepiness in it which hath touched me in the brain
pan. It is not more than once in a man's lifetime, Master Secretary,
that so choice a maiden as our Mistress Blanche comes to
so rich an age as eighteen. You may search the two hemispheres
for another like her, and still make a bootless errand of it. It
was an occasion for a cup, and a most reasonable excuse for a
late nap in the morning."

"The sun is just peering above the water, Captain," replied the
Secretary; "and he who sleeps no later than sunrise, even without
the excuse of a night revel, may scarcely be chid for laziness.
I have broken in thus early upon you, that I might speak with
you on a matter of moment to myself. I want your counsel and
friendship in an affair touching mine honor, Captain Dauntrees."

"Ah, is it there the wind sits? Tarry, Master Verheyden,
but a moment, whilst I get my serving man to truss my points, I
shall be with you anon. An affair of the sword, truly! It is
well to be early in the consideration of such matters. Matchcote,
hark ye! come hither, - quickly," he shouted from his door to his
valet; "come, gather these points and set me abroad. There,
there, - now leave us, and busy thyself about breakfast, Matchcote,
- we shall have a relish for the best in the larder. Away,
good fellow!" As soon as the servant, in obedience to this order,
had left the apartment, the Captain inquired - "Who have we
opposed to us, Master Verheyden? Do we take him with long

sword, tuck, or rapier? Where do we meet? But first begin
the story at the beginning."

"That I propose to do, Captain," said the Secretary, smiling.
"This Cocklescraft, the master of the Olive Branch, has chosen
to conceive himself offended by a rebuke I found it necessary to
give him for some unseasonable importunity of our maiden of the
Rose Croft. It is almost a se'nnight past, and he must needs tax
me with it, last night, and challenge me to a trial of manhood.
His challenge grows out of some sudden moodiness engendered by
somewhat that vexed him at the dance. Now, though I hold the
skipper is scarce privileged to exact of me the redress of his
weapon, being of a base condition so far as he is known in the
province - yet, Captain, I did not choose to be defied by him, and,
therefore, without parley or asking time for deliberation, accepted
his challenge, wherein it was appointed to hold the meeting this
day at noon at Cornwaleys's Cross. I would entreat your friendship
to stand by me in this appointment; and, as I am unversed
in the usage of the duel, your better experience may instruct me."

"It was well done on your part, Master Albert, - exceeding
well done," replied the Captain. "I applaud you for a gentle
man of prompt spirit, and careful consideration of his honor. This
same Master Cocklescraft needs such discipline as you may teach
him. He tosses the feather of his bonnet somewhat more jauntily
over his shoulder than he has warrant to do; and he has a trick
of turning the buckle of his belt behind more frequently than
peaceable, well-disposed persons may choose to bear. I have
noted him with greater strictness than others in the port, and
have, from the first, written him down a dog of rough breed,
notwithstanding his velvet jerkin and golden tassels. I have seen
too many whelps of that litter, Master Verheyden, not to know
them when I meet them. You did well to receive his challenge
- although one would hardly have thought you had learned as

much in the seminar at Antwerp. At noon is it? We have
some hours before us, Master Secretary, and may employ the time
in practice for the encounter. I will give you some cautions that
shall stand you in stead to-day."

CHAPTER XX.

- He that fights a duel,
Like a blind man that falls, but cares to keep
His staff, provides with art to save his honor,
But trusts his soul to chance: 'tis an ill fashion.
SHIRLEY.
WHILST the Secretary was undergoing the Captain's preparatory
training in the Fort, the skipper was no less busy in making
provision for the meeting. Having secured the services of a second,
he betook himself on board of his vessel, which he caused to be
loosed from her mooring and then dropped down the river opposite
the creek of St. Inigoe's, where he anchored - his purpose
being to take a position convenient to the spot chosen for the
encounter, and to which he might proceed without suspicion from
the townspeople.

Cornwaleys's Cross was situated near the most inland extremity
of a deep and narrow inlet, known by the name of St. Luke's
creek - a branch of St. Inigoe's - on a piece of meadow,
surrounded by woods, immediately at the foot of a range of hills, not
more than four miles, by land, from the port of St. Mary's, and
about half that distance by water from the anchorage of the Olive
Branch. This spot was traditionally notorious to the inhabitants
of the town, as the scene of a melancholy event that had happened
nearly fifty years anterior to the date of this story, in which
a gentleman of repute in the early history of the province, Captain
Cornwaleys, had the misfortune, on a hunting excursion, accidentally

and with fatal effect to lodge the contents of his carbine in
the bosom of his friend. The bitterness of this unhappy gentleman's
grief, unallayed by active and meritorious service in the
early wars of the colony, induced him, in the decline of his life,
to erect a hermitage on the spot, whither he retired, in obedience
to a penitential vow, and dedicated the remnant of his days to
austere self-denial and religious devotion. A cross of locust, now
swayed from its perpendicular by age, still reared its shattered
frame above the ruins of the ancient hermitage, of which there
yet remained a few mouldering logs, mingled with the fragments
of the crushed roof, and the hearth-stone showing the scorches of
long-quenched fires, in the light of which the soldier-hermit had
undergone his painful vigils of prayer. A certain superstitious
notoriety was thus conferred upon the place, and by some strange
association peculiar to the habits of those times, in which the
sword and cross still held a mystical relation in the popular
belief, it had grown to be the customary appointed trysting
ground for those personal combats which constituted, at that era,
almost a lawful and approved ordinance of society.

In the vicinity of this spot, about half an hour before noon,
occasional glimpses through the foliage might have been had of
Captain Dauntrees and Albert Verheyden, followed by Matchcote,
the Captain's man, - all mounted, - as they descended the hill in
the rear of St. Luke's, by a winding, gravelly road, partially
overgrown with bay-tree, alder, and laurel. The murmur of
cheerful conversation, and now and then an outflash of audible
mirth in the voice of the Captain, for some moments before they
arrived at their halting point, would have puzzled a casual hearer
to guess the nature of their errand: and when they reached the
level ground and finally reined up their horses, hard by the old
wind-shaken cross, Dauntrees was still engaged in narrating to the
Secretary some story of pleasant interest, which had evidently,

for the time, drawn off at least the narrators thoughts from the
main purpose of the day.

"By our patron! Master Verheyden," said the commander
of the fort, as he carefully clambered down from his saddle and
drew forth his watch, "we have here reached our ground before
I was aware of it: a cheerful companion has a marvellous faculty
in abridging a long road. - The adventures of this Claude de la
Chastre would wear out a winter night in the telling, and never
a drowsy ear in the company. I purpose, on a fit occasion,
Master Albert, to rehearse to you more of that worthy soldier's
exploits. He served under six kings, and fought fifteen duels, -
the last at three score and ten. I have seen his chapel and
tomb with my own eyes at Bourges and his true effigies cut in
stone."

"I have been but a listener, Captain," said the Secretary with
a smile, "and would willingly hear more of that valiant gentleman,
when we have brought our own adventures to an end. Methinks
now, we may find other occupation in the matter we have
in hand."

"Why as to that, Master Verheyden," replied the Captain,
"as we have very diligently perpended all matters relating to this
meeting, before we quitted the fort, and have now nothing left
to do but to wait for the accolade, the less thought we give it the
better. We should go to this pinking and scratching as a mumbling
old priest goes to mass, - even as a thing of custom, wherein
there is but little premeditation: - and yet, by my gossip, not
exactly as a priest goes to mass, for he goes hungry and dry: I
would by no means have it so. Here, Matchcote, that flask from
thy wallet! I have ever found that when an affair of business
or sport be on hand, it is good grace to begin it, first by devoutly
drawing your sleeves, like a Dutch toper, across your mouth, and
then to take such reasonable and opportune refreshment as shall

give a fillip to the spirit without clouding the brain. And so, by
way of example, as your senior, Master Verheyden," he added,
taking the bottle from the servant's hand and applying it to his
mouth, "here I drink - Good fortune to our venture!

'True
eye and steady hand,
Home
thrust and keen brand,'

as the rhyme has it.
You will drink, master?"

"I pray you, excuse me, Captain," replied Albert; "my head
will not stand so early a freedom, and, to say the truth, I have no
relish for food or drink until this affair be done. I scarce ate
this morning."

"Over-anxiousness, Master Secretary! too eager for your
first entry upon the field of Mars! - ha, ha! - the token of a
green soldier, a callow martialist; but it is natural, and will wear
off when you have fought half-a-dozen of these bouts. I went
through it all myself. In my 'prenticeship I could neither sleep
nor eat - faith! I will not say drink - at the contemplation of a
pitched field, but was ever taken up with the thought of making
ready. There was always some tag in my bandalier
to be
looked
to - some strap awry - some furbishing of musketoon, pike or
sword to be cared for: - works of supererogation! as the Church
has it. But it is pleasant to behold how use in the wars corrects
a qualmish appetite, and contents one with his accommodation:
it teaches the stomach the custom of instant service. So keep
yourself cool, Master Verheyden, - it is a cardinal point of
discretion. And, I beseech you, be not fanciful in your conceit
of skill with your weapon; for though you play well, you have
a swordsman to deal with. I have seen some whipsters who
were over-fantastic and dainty in their love of the quarrel; and
it was as much as their tutors could do to bring them to that
modesty of opinion which should put them on the necessary
cautions of fence. Such hawklings get their lesson in good

"I have seen," continued Dauntrees, "almost as many of
these dudgeon-prickings as the renowned Claude de la Chastre
himself; and have found, in nine chances out of ten, your cool
and cheery gentleman to get the odds of your choleric hot-blood.
I had a comrade in Flanders who was a master in this sort - and,
by the bell and candle! a priest. A most comical churchman,
truly! His name was Roger O'Brien, an Irish Jesuit, and most
notable for many perfections both of the book and the sword.
From a liking to his old trade - for he served with Prince Rupert
before he took up the cassock - he must needs, for a fancy, put
on the red coat again, and buckle his cheese-toaster to his thigh,
and, in this disguise, throw himself abroad amongst the
lanskennets and swash-bucklers of Flanders. There I met him, and
we journeyed together to Paris. Ha, ha, ha! I saw him foil
the whole Sorbonne on a great prize question! There was
a thesis debated - a quodlibet wrangle concerning some knot in
the cobweb of theology - where the whole world was challenged
to the dispute. Thereupon, my Irish friend and myself - both in
our livery - went swaggering in to see and hear how these
Frenchmen chopped their logic. The thesis was debated in
Latin; when presently, to the amazement of all - myself no less
than others - up rises my priest to say somewhat to the point.
Well, a Spanish cavalier there present, thinking my comrade
could be no other than a man of the wars in his cups, rudely
pulls him by the skirt to take his seat; but he nowise heeding
this interruption, pressed on in his discourse, and poured out such
a flood of choice Latin, most select in phrase and apt in argument,

that the amazement of the company was greatly increased, and
our priestly martialist won the whole glory of the day. The
Sorbonne was mute, and the assembly in an ecstasy of wonder.
Whereupon departing, Father O'Brien touches the Spanish
cavalier upon the shoulder, and whispers in his ear a challenge
to meet him, at sunset, in the churchyard of St. Genevieve,
which the Spaniard could not choose avoid. I went with my
friend to the rendezvous; and on the way, amongst other
discourse touching the arrangement of the duel, I shall not forget
his commendation of this virtue of coolness, by which I have
more than once profited: for he was, Master Verheyden, a most
expert swordsman, and singularly versed in the practique of
these single combats, and showed it too on that day; for our
testy Spaniard, a fellow of pepper and ginger, was whipt through
the lungs whilst he was flourishing at a stoccado. Said Father
O'Brien to me, - a man who plays at this craft of phlebotomy,
should carry a light heart and a merry eye before his adversary,
and, like a rake-helly royster who makes free of the commodity
of a tavern, should give no thought to the reckoning. It was
excellent advice, Master Verheyden, and I commend it to your
notice now."

"I shall do my best," replied the Secretary; "and if I
should chance, Master Dauntrees, to fail in some necessary
punctilio, you will pardon it, for my unskilfulness. An acolyte of the
Seminary of Antwerp has but scant opportunity to make
himself master of the observances of the duello."

"By my honor as a man, Master Secretary, I have not seen
amongst the most practiced cavaliers, a gentleman who comes to
his appointment with better grace, than this same acolyte of the
Seminary of Antwerp."

some three months in Brabant, being at Louvain, I had a master
there - an Italian, one Signor Sacchari - who taught me to ride
the great horse and manage my weapon, both rapier and
longsword. And, to say sooth, - though it should shame me to
confess it, - I do not dislike this quarrel with the skipper. I do
not perceive, - and yet I may misjudge the world's opinion, -
but I do not perceive how I may be blamed for taking up this
quarrel. I tell you truly, Master Dauntrees," added the Secretary,
blushing, "and would beg you say so - to her, Master
Dauntrees - if adverse fortune should befall me on this ground
to-day - that I would gladly encounter for Mistress Blanche, our
maiden of the Rose Croft, a sharper war and more perilous hazard
than this single combat with a rude and boisterous seaman; and
now, with right good will I seek to do her honor against the
body of this unruly skipper. Say so to her, I pray you, good
Captain Dauntrees."

"Tush, man, you heed not my preaching! When you go
to dying speeches, it is summing up of the reckoning. A fig's
end for the message! you shall bear it to the maiden yourself. -
Blame you, Master Secretary! Who would blame, I would fain
know, a brave man who does battle for so peerless a maiden?
By my manhood! I think that nothing short of the maiden
herself will be fit guerdon for this exploit. He was a wise and
a courteous king, as the ballad feigns him, that gave his daughter
to the brave knight who overthrew his adversary in combat.
Now I will take on me to say that no king of the ballad ever had
more need to be rid of a pestilent suitor to his daughter, than
our worshipful friend, old Anthony Warden, has to be free of
this sea-dog. You shall fairly win a most fair meed: and here,
once more, I do you honor in a sup, with this pledge -

There's verse for it - halting verse, ha, ha! Master Verheyden,
but of an honest coinage it comes from thine and the maiden's
well-wisher." And with this flash of merriment, the Captain
again plied the flask, and spent some moments laughing at his
jest, when he suddenly ceased with the remark, "I hear the stroke
of oars - this Master Cocklescraft is at hand. He is punctual,
for it is just noon. We shall see him anon."

It was as the Captain said: for at that moment Cocklescraft,
attended by two followers, was seen coming up from the margin
of St. Luke's, across the meadow, to the place appointed for the
combat.

Cocklescraft's bearing was stern; his brow high charged with
passion, and a keen resentment flashed from his eye as he
advanced into the presence of his adversary. A slight salute passed
between the combatants, and for some moments each party drew
aside.

In the presence of his antagonist Dauntrees's whole deportment
was changed. He had heretofore, as we have seen, assumed
a cheerful vein of intercourse with his principal, considerately
adapted with a view to amuse his mind and give him the necessary
assurance which the successful conduct of the enterprise required
- a labor, however, which was in no degree rendered necessary
by the circumstances of the case, as it was very apparent that the
Secretary, although a novice in the practice of the quarrel, was
altogether self-possessed, and even eager for the issue. The
Captain, however, was not slow to perceive that there was still
in his carriage that hurried motion and too anxious restlessness
which betokened the novelty of the situation in which he found
himself, and the earnestness of his desire to acquit himself to
the satisfaction of his own feelings. Through all this cheerful
colloquy of the Captain, Albert's manner was grave, and scarce
responded to his companion's merriment; but now that the

moment of action arrived, he grew apparently more light-hearted;
whilst, on the other hand, Dauntrees became serious, and
addressed himself to the business in hand, like a careful and
provident man.

"The skipper is surly," said Dauntrees, as he stood apart
with the Secretary, wiping the sword that was to be used by his
friend. "I am glad to see it: it denotes passion. Receive the
assault from him; stand on your defence, giving ground slightly
to his advance: then suddenly, when you have whipped him to a
rage, as you will surely do, give back the attack hotly; follow
it up, as you did this morning in practice with me, and you will
hardly fail to find him at disadvantage; then thrust home - for
the shorter you make this quarrel the better for your strength."

"I am more at my ease in this play than you think me,"
replied Albert, smiling; "you shall find it so. Pray let us go
to our business."

The Captain, with two rapiers in his hand, advanced to the
ground occupied by Cocklescraft and his friends.

"I would be acquainted with your second, Master Cocklescraft,"
he said. "Here are our swords: shall we measure?"

"Master Roche del Carmine," replied the skipper, as he
presented a swarthy Portuguese seaman, the mate of the Olive
Branch; "this other companion is but a looker on."

"I would you had matched me," replied Dauntrees, hastily;
and with some show of displeasure, "with an antagonist of better
degree, Master Slipper, than this mate of yours. He was but
a boatswain within the year past. Our quality deserved that
you should sort us with gentlemen, at least."

"Gentlemen!" exclaimed the Portuguese in a passion; "St.
Salvadore! are we not gentlemen enough for you. We belong
to the Coast -"

not here - leave me to speak! Master Roche Del Carmine is
my follower, not my second, further than as your bearing, Master
Dauntrees, may render one needful to me. I came hither to
make my own battle."

"I came to this field," replied Dauntrees, "prepared with
my sword to make good the quarrel of my friend against any
you might match me with. So, second or follower, bully or
bravo at your heels, Master Cocklescraft, I will fight with this
Master Roche."

"That is but a boy's play, and I will none of it, Captain
Dauntrees," said Cocklescraft, angrily. "This custom of making
parties brings the quarrel to an end at the first drawing of blood.
I wish no respite upon a scratch; my demand stops not short of
a mortal strife."

"My sword, sir!" said Albert Verheyden, hastily striding
up to the Captain and seizing his sword. "This is my quarrel
alone; Captain Dauntrees, you strike no blow in it. Upon your
guard, sir!" he added, whilst his eye flashed fire, and his whole
figure was lighted up with the animation of his anger. "To
your guard! I will have no parley!"

"Are you bereft?" exclaimed Dauntrees, interposing with his
sword between the parties, and looking the Secretary steadfastly
in the face. "Back, Master Verheyden, this quarrel must proceed
orderly."

Then conducting his principal some paces off, the other yielding
to his guidance, he again cautioned him against losing his
self-command by such bursts of passion. The Secretary
promised obedience, and begged him to proceed.

"Go to it, in cuerpo - strip to your shirt, Master Albert!"
said the Captain. When the Secretary had, in obedience to
this order, thrown aside his cloak and doublet, and come to the
spot designated by his second as his position in the fight,

Dauntrees once more approached the opposite party, went through
the formal ceremony of measuring swords, and then returned and
placed the weapon in Albert's hand, at the same time drawing
his own and planting himself within a few paces of his friend.

"We are ready, sir!" he said, bowing to the skipper's
attendant.

Cocklescraft lost no time in taking his ground; Master Roche
del Carmine carefully keeping out of the way of harm from any
party.

The onset was made by the skipper with an energy that
almost amounted to rage, and it was with a most lively interest,
not unmingled with pleasure, that Dauntrees watched the eye of
Albert Verheyden, and saw it playing with an expression of
confidence and self-command whilst, with admirable dexterity,
he parried his antagonist's assault.

"Bravo!" exclaimed Dauntrees, more than once during this
anxious moment. "To it, Master Verheyden! passado - hotly,
master!" he cried aloud, at the same time flourishing his own
blade above his head when he saw Albert return the attack with
great animation upon his adversary, who was thus compelled
to give ground.

This rapid exchange of thrust and parry was suddenly
arrested by the sword of the skipper being struck from his
hand. The Secretary had disarmed him, and instead of following
up his advantage, generously halted and brought the point
of his own sword to the ground.

"The fight is done; we hold you, sir, at mercy!" said Dauntrees,
promptly interposing, and placing his foot upon the skipper's
rapier. "Master Verheyden has come hither upon your challenge;
you will acknowledge that your life is in his hands. You
have had your satisfaction, sir."

Cocklescraft at the same instant picked up the rapier from the
ground, and madly called out for a renewal of the fight, as with
extended arm he presented himself again upon his guard.

"Instead of the favor that has been shown you in sparing
your worthless life, you deserve to be cloven to the chine for this
dastardly bravado!" exclaimed Dauntrees, as his spirit suddenly
kindled into wrath, notwithstanding the advice he had given
the Secretary to keep his temper. "Out upon thee for a disgrace
to thy calling!" he added, in a tone of angry reproof, as
advancing nearer to the skipper he struck the extended rapier
with a dexterous underblow and made it spin in the air above his
head; "I could almost find it in my conscience to spit thee
upon my sword."

"By the Virgin, I will not see my captain put upon!" said
Roche del Carmine, as he now advanced towards the combatants,
though still keeping a respectable space between himself
and the Captain, whose skill of fence he had no mind to try.

"Nor I!" exclaimed the other attendant, at the same time
drawing his hanger and shouting, "Whoop, Master Cocklescraft!
Perros, a la savanna! For the Brothers of the Coast! -
let them have it in the fashion of the Costa Rica!"

"Caitiffs!" vociferated Dauntrees, as he and Albert Verheyden
now sprang forward to engage with the attendants -

"Back to your boat, you knaves! is it thus you serve me?"
interposed Cocklescraft, thrusting his officious followers aside,
and then whispering to the mate, "there is an end of it - begone!"

"By my sword, but here is a crossing of our plot!" exclaimed
Dauntrees, on looking towards the range of upland over which
the road towards the town lay, and discovering no less a
personage than the Proprietary and Father Pierre approaching
them on horseback; "we have been informed on and tracked.

Thanks to our luck! his Lordship may do nothing better than
rail against us, as is his wont. He has ever had a quick nose to
scent out a duel - ay, and a nimble tongue, Master Verheyden,
to reprove one: this is not my first experience of his reprimand.
We shall have it without stint presently."

"To the boat, quickly, and put off!" said Cocklescraft, with
a sullen angry tone to his companions. "I may find another
day to right myself," he muttered as he gathered up his sword,
cloak, and hat, and, with a moody swagger, hurriedly strode
towards his boat which lay in a direction opposite to that from
which the Proprietary was hastening towards the scene. In a
few moments he had embarked, and was seen shooting along the
glassy surface of St. Luke's until he was speedily lost to view by
rounding one of the turns of the creek. In the mean time Lord
Baltimore and the priest arrived on the ground of the combat
before the Secretary had yet resumed his doublet.

"Ah, my son, my son!" exclaimed the good Father Pierre,
as he pricked his steed forward in advance of the Proprietary,
and made haste to alight and throw his arms around Albert's
neck, kissing his cheeks, whilst the tears flowed down his own;
"my son Albert, how could you be so unmindful of poor Father
Pierre, to give him all this pain? We saw swords flashing in
the son, and heard the clank of steel. Are you hurt, my son?
You look pale."

"I am not hurt, Father, more than that I am pained to see
you here," replied the Secretary, as he affectionately placed his
arm across the old man's shoulders; "our quarrel has ended
without the shedding of blood."

"Albert Verheyden," said the Proprietary gravely, reining
up beside the young man, "I take it much amiss that one of
my household should dare to contemn the laws of this province
by coming forth to such appointment as I find you concerned in

here. I had reason to hope for the setting of good example
from him whom I chose for my secretary; but I find you fostering
an evil usage which is worthy no better countenance than
such as it hath gained from hot-bloods and rufflers. Fie on
thee, Albert! Is it for thee, who hast but lately changed thy
square cloister-bonnet for the feathery gewgaw of a page - is it
for thee to play at bilbo and buff like a common royster? Have
we no shallow-pated coxcomb with the privilege of wearing a
sword, who, for lack of other quality to be noted by, hath
learned a trick to vapor and strut, and swear filthy oaths, and
break God's commandments and men's peace with his bloody
broils, but that a scholar and gentleman, nursed in all kindly
studies - ay, and who hath been reared, Master Verheyden,
within the pale of the altar - must needs turn buckler-man
with a rude sea-rover, and quarrel and strike as in an ale-house
fray? Oh, it doth grieve me to find you thus!"

"My honored Lord," replied Albert, not venturing to raise
his eyes from the ground, "I do confess my fault, which with
forethought and weighing of all consequence, except my Lord's
displeasure, I did commit. I was called hither by such defiance
as it would not have consisted with my manhood to refuse. I
have sought no companionship with the skipper, nor knew that
such man was, till within a week - and even now was prone to
slight him off, as one not worthy of my resentment; but, my
good Lord, venturing to presume upon my cloistered schooling
and my unskilfulness with my sword, he must taunt with a
question of my courage, and defy me hither."

"And if a fellow who lives upon the element of his own
brawls, must take a conceit to exalt his base condition by having
a contest with his betters, shall he compass it by bragging words
and bullying questions? Does it mend his manners, or exalt
your deservings, to have a pass with him on the green sward?

Would it comfort you to bring away from this field a hand red
with his blood? Captain Dauntrees, how comes it to pass that
I see you here? Your age should have given you the privilege
to be a peace-maker, not the fomenter of a quarrel."

"My Lord," said the Captain, folding his arms across his
breast and advancing one foot to give a more sturdy fixedness to
his attitude, whilst an expression half comic lurked in his eye,
"I am an old ban-dog that has been chidden too often for barking
to heed reproof in my old age. Your Lordship hath the
credit of a persevering spirit to abolish the duello within the
province; I foretell you will even give over before your work is
done: it were but lost pains, if I might be so bold as to say so
- at least until your Lordship shall find a more mannerly brood
of lieges. By the mass! we shall win sainthood for our patience,
if, in these saucy times, we may reach such perfection of humility
as to brook the insolences of some of your Lordship's hopeful
children of the province. The skipper was rude to our Mistress
Blanche, - and the Secretary, like a cavalier, such as becomes
your Lordship's household, rebuked him for it; and thereupon
grew a considered challenge, which Master Verheyden accepting,
as, in my poor judgment, he could not otherwise do, I came hither
with him to see fair play. It is well I did - for, to my thinking,
this seaman would not have stopped at any measure of treachery.
He has a deep hate against the Secretary, and the lesson Master
Verheyden has taught him will not much sweeten his humor."

"Thy profession, Captain Dauntrees, gives thee a license
which makes it but lost breath to chide thee," said the Proprietary
calmly, nowise offended with the soldier's familiar and rebellious
good nature; "and, to say the truth, there is much rude
speech and provoking action to tempt even a more governed man
into quarrel; yet I would not have you believe that I take this
transgression so lightly. Albert Verheyden, you will incur my

deepest displeasure, if, under any pretext or advice, you farther
prosecute this feud. Captain Dauntrees, I command you to look
to it, and charge you to arrest the first who seeks to revive the
quarrel."

"On the faith of my love to your Lordship," replied Albert,
"I promise that I will not again offend."

"My dear son," interposed the priest, still holding the Secretary's
hand, "my experience has long admonished me, that to
preach restraint upon the desires of the young is but struggling
up the channel of a torrent: it is hard to teach patience under
wrong to those whose blood is hot with the fever of passion.
Still, mon enfant, though I may not hope to persuade you - for
verily I know the censure of the world leaves to a temper such as
thine no choice but obedience to the law of custom - still, my
dear son, you will sometimes, perhaps, take old Father Pierre's
words to heart: he would entreat you to reflect, that although
offence may abound, and the fashion of men's opinions may
set disgrace upon the refusal to right a contrived wrong; and
though the pride of manhood may take pleasure in strife - yea,
even though thy conscience shall tell thee of a just cause, and
worthy of vindication by the sword - yet the heroism of suffering
hath better acceptation with Heaven than all the heroism of
action. Do not forget neither, my dear Master Albert, that you
are linked in this world with others, whose right to you and to
your affections you dare not violate but at the hazard of the
displeasure of the God who placed you here and gave you to your
kind. How should Father Pierre have borne the bereavement
of his son, if your adversary had chanced to be too skilful for
your defence? There is yet another," said the good priest, drawing
nigh to the Secretary's ear and speaking almost in a whisper,
"who takes this peril even more to heart than Father Pierre.
Ah, Master Albert, you did not think of them that loved you!"

The Secretary blushed at the last allusion of the priest, as he
hurriedly replied, "Father, it is over now - let us say no more
about it."

"There, the truce is made!" said the old man, exultingly,
whilst he grasped Albert by the hand and shook it, a smile
playing amongst the tears that stood in his eyes: "we have made
a truce - benedicite! We shall be as happy and as gay as ever!
Allons, mon enfant, put on your cloak, and get you to your horse.
My Lord, we shall reserve our scolding for another time."

"Get back to my house, Master Verheyden," said the Proprietary
in a quiet tone, not heeding the appeal to him, but
with a thoughtful and serious manner, which stood in marked
opposition to the light and laughing air of the priest. "Captain
Dauntrees, do not tarry on this field, but follow us back to the
port. Come on, Father Pierre, the day is wasting."

In a moment the Captain and Secretary were left to themselves.

"Nay, never take on, Master Verheyden, nor fall into dumps,"
said Dauntrees, observing that his companion felt the silent
displeasure of the Proprietary. "It is ever thus with his Lordship
who, from his cradle, I believe, has set his heart to the extirpation
of our noble art of self-defence. A conceit of his which
does no harm. His face will be sunny again to-morrow - never
heed it."

"I cannot see that I have done wrong," replied Albert, with
a sigh; "I would not offend his Lordship."

"Tut, man, if you watched his eye, you would have seen in a
corner of it, that he likes you all the better for this day's hazard.
Now to horse!"

CHAPTER XXI.

I
read you by your bugle horn,
And
by your palfrey good:
I
read you for a Ranger sworn
To
keep the king's greenwood.
With
burnished brand and musketoon
So
gallantly you come,
I
read you for a bold dragoon
That
lists the tuck of drum.
SCOTT.

THE skipper returned to
his vessel in no gentle mood, for, in the
language of the ballad, "an angry man was he." Springing
alertly from the small boat to the deck of the brigantine, he
peevishly flung down his weapon and cloak, and paced to and
fro, with a hurried step, for some moments in silence. "Give me
drink! - some wine!" he exclaimed at length; and when a boy,
in obedience to this order, brought him what he had called for,
and he had put the liquid to his lips, he shouted in a tone that
made the lad tremble, as he throw the glass upon the deck and
shivered it into fragments, "Knave! why dost thou bring me this
weak stuff? I would have aqua vitæ, fool!" The stronger
potation being supplied, he eagerly swallowed a draught, and
threw himself upon the seat at the stern of the vessel, where, for
a considerable space, he sat with his eyes fixed upon the broad
field of water around him. By degrees the fever of his passion
subsided into a sullen thoughtfulness, and he began to meditate,
with a more self-possessed consistency of view, over the condition

of his affairs. He recurred to the slight put upon him by the
maiden, the Secretary's reproof, the contemptuous and insulting
rejection of his suit by the Collector, and, bitterest of all these
topics of exacerbation, his defeat in the duel by an antagonist
whose prowess he had persuaded himself to hold in derision.
Verheyden's triumph over him, as he was obliged to confess it,
struck like an arrow into his heart: that so light and dainty a
minion, as he deemed the Secretary, might win such a victory,
and then boast of it to the maiden! - this reflection wrought up
to fire the ardor of his hatred and brought his meditation to one
stern conclusion - that of revenge.

"I renounce them, their tribe and generation!" he said,
mutteringly. "From this day forth, I renounce them and all
they consort with - Anthony Warden and his associates; yes -
his Lordship and the rest. I abjure all fellowship with them,
but such fellowship as my sword may maintain. The maiden! -
not so fast, master!" he continued with a smile that betrayed
the true devil of his nature: "scornful mistress, it would be
over charitable to give thee up. Bonny damsel, thou shalt
dance a corant yet to my bidding - and on the deck of my merry
Escalfador; but it shall be beneath a warmer sun than thy pride
has been nursed in: by my hand, you shall, wench, if there be
virtue in these honest cut-throats of mine! And Master Collector
shall be cared for. I thank thee, Father Pierre, for thy
considerateness: - didst thou not let me into a secret touching
the royal order? Faith, did you, holy father! and I will make
profit of it. Oh, this excellent church quarrel too! I will join
Master Chiseldine and Coode, and teach them devilish inventions!
Ha! that's a thought worth the nursing - Coode and
the Fendalls! We shall have blows struck; we shall have good
store of cutlass and hanger-work, pistol-play and dagger!
Bravo! there will be feasting for a hungry man! To it, pell-mell,

like gentlemen of the Coast - sink, burn, blow up - stab and
hack - ravish and run! St. Iago, but there is a merry sequence
for you! Why need the Brotherhood hover over the nestlings
of Peru, when we have such dainty devilries in the temperate
zone? I will straight about this plot of mischief, whilst my
blood is warm enough to hatch it. Ho! Roche! order me two
men into the shallop - I would visit the port."

Whilst the skipper, in this amiable temper, was making his
way towards the town, I may take the opportunity to give my
reader a brief history of certain persons and events with which
our tale is now connected.

Josias Fendall, when Cromwell had seized upon the Proprietary's
rights in Maryland, had the address to obtain the appointment
of Lieutenant-General of the province, which he held under
this authority, until, by an act of treachery to those who had
procured his preferment, he was able to secure to himself the
same post by the commission of Cecilius, who, in the decline of
Cromwell's power, found the government restored to its rightful
owner. Having, in turn, attempted to betray the Proprietary,
and to usurp an independent control in the Province, he
was expelled from office; in consequence of which he was
engaged in a rebellion which, after a troublesome contest, ended in
his banishment. The clemency of the Proprietary eventually
restored him to his home, where, before the lapse of many months,
he fell into his old practices and again embroiled himself with
the authorities. He was a man of an eager, seditious temper;
a skilful dissembler in conduct; bold in action and dissolute in
manners, although sufficiently crafty to conceal his excesses from
public observation. He was now, in his old age, the ringleader
of the present troubles; and some months anterior to the opening
of this narrative, his threats of violence against the Proprietary,
as well as certain well-founded suspicions of a design to

overthrow the provincial government by force, had led to his
arrest for treason. He was, consequently, as we have hinted in
a former chapter, at this moment, a close prisoner in the jail.
His brother, Samuel Fendall, upon this event, took upon himself
to stir up his friends to the enterprise of a rescue; but this had
produced no better result than to lodge Samuel in the same prison
with his kinsman. The Protestant party, - I mean that portion
of them who had been active in sustaining the violent measures
set on foot by the Fendalls, - headed by John Coode, Kenelm
Chiseldine, and some others, hotly resented this persecution, as
they deemed the imprisonment of their friends. They had
seduced into their association George Godfrey, a weak-minded
yet daring man, who held the post of Lieutenant of the Rangers
in the service of the Proprietary, and who in this station found
many secret opportunities to promote the purposes of the
malcontent party. John Coode himself was, at this epoch, smarting
under the exasperation of a personal indignity which he had
recently received from the Proprietary in an arrest - from which
he was released upon bail - for coarse and insulting conduct to
the Chancellor. He had hitherto cunningly avoided or successfully
concealed all open participation in the plot which was hatching
against the present domination of the province, although he
had not, as we have heretofore seen, escaped the suspicion of
foul designs. He was a member of the House of Burgesses, and,
in the session which had just terminated, had rendered himself
conspicuous for a keen, vindictive, and (as he was sustained by
the popular party) successful war of vituperation against Lord
Baltimore and his council.

About four o'clock in the afternoon, this Captain John Coode,
according to a custom which he was prone to indulge, was found
seated on a bench that stood at the door of the Crow and
Archer, recreating his outward man with the solace of a tankard

of ale and a pipe, whilst his inward self was absorbed with a
rumination that spread its bland repose over every lineament
of his ruddy and somewhat pimpled visage. A limner who took
pleasure in the study of the externals of character would have
halted with satisfaction before this notable personage. He might
have been, at this epoch, about forty-five. His figure was sturdy,
broad in the chest, and supported by short and bowed legs. His
face had that jollity of aspect which comes from an unthrifty
commerce with the wine-cup; and his eye, though somewhat
clouded and sensitive to the light, twinkled with a sharp expression
of cunning and malice. His dress was of sober brown, retaining
a general resemblance to the fashion of Cromwell's day,
which had not yet fallen into entire disuse. It was composed of
a coat the skirts of which, sparingly decorated with black braid,
depended, both in front and rear, to the knee; ample breeches
and wide boots; conical, broad-brimmed hat, and a double-hilted
Andrew Ferrara hanging from a leathern girdle.

At the moment I have introduced him to the view of my
reader, his meditation was interrupted by the arrival of a horseman,
- a tall, athletic person, in the prime of manhood, equipped
partly in the manner of a wood ranger, as was indicated by the
hatchet and knife in his belt and the carbine slung across his
shoulder, and partly in that of a dragoon - betokened by his
horseman's sword and the pistols at his saddle-bow.

"Master Coode, your servant," was the greeting of the rider
whilst he dismounted and flung the rein carelessly upon the neck
of his steed, whose head drooped and sides panted with the toil
of his recent journey. "Your ale is like to grow flat from a lack
of thirst: - I can supply that commodity," he said, as he took up
the tankard and deliberately drained it to the bottom.

my leave!" exclaimed Coode with a laugh. "Where in the d-l
are you from now?"

"From Potapaco and the parts above," replied Godfrey, (for
it was no other than the Lieutenant of the Rangers:) "that
painted devil Manahoton and his wild cats have been prowling
around the upper settlements. There have been throat-cutting
and scalping again. Red-haired Tom Galloway was waylaid on
his road to Zacaiah Fort, and the savages stole into his plantation
and have murdered his wife and children. Nothing but
speed and bottom saved me to-day: a party with that son of
Tiquassino's - Robin Hood, they call him - at least I suspect him
for it, from a limp which I saw in the fellow's walk - lay in cover
and fired at me, just over at the head of Britton's bay. They
must have been in liquor, for they popped their pieces so much
at random, as to strike wide both of me and my horse. I gave
them a parting volley, as far as pistols and carbines served, and
then bade then good-bye."

"I dare be sworn they were stirred up to these attacks,"
replied Coode. "These bloody Papists have set a mark upon us
all, and not only rouse the savages against us, but disguise themselves,
and murder and burn with as hot a hand as the worst red
devil of them all. Whilst Charles Calvert is allowed to hector
it over the good people of the province, we may hope for nothing
better. Did you see Will Clements?"

"I did, and have news from him that the Buttons and Hatfields,
with twenty more on the Virginia side, are ready to cross
the river at the first signal."

"Have a care, Lieutenant," whispered Coode, as he cast his
eye towards the quay; "here comes a boat with that fellow
Cocklescraft, one of his Lordship's lurchers. It would do you
no good to be seen in parley with me. We meet to-night, at

Chiseldine's. Let me see you there: and now, away to your
own concerns."

"I will not fail to go to Chiseldine's, worthy Master Coode,"
replied the Lieutenant, whilst he now turned aside to look after
his beast.

"What ho! Garret Weasel, send me some one to this
horse!" he cried out as he thrust his head into the door of
the inn.

Instead of the innkeeper, the summons was answered by
Matty Scamper, who, with a courtesy, announced that both
Master Garret and the landlady wore abroad; and upon being
made acquainted with the Lieutenant's wish, took upon herself
the business of hostler and led off the jaded steed to the stable,
whilst Godfrey entered the hostel. At the same instant Cocklescraft
arrived at the door.

"Perhaps you could tell me, Master Coode," he inquired,
"whether Kenelm Chiseldine is likely to be at home?"

"Faith, most unlikely as I should guess," replied the burgess
with a leer at the questioner. "Whilst his Lordship allows the
savages to shoot down and scalp the honest people of the
province, here under his very nose, a wise man will learn who his
visitor may be, before he will allow himself to be seen."

"Master Chiseldine has nothing to fear from me," said
Cocklescraft. "I would I might see him," he added with
an earnestness that forcibly attracted Coode's attention.

"Why what, in the devil's name, have you to do with Kenelm
Chiseldine?"

"More than you suspect, sir. I would speak with him on
affairs of importance. It perhaps may concern you to hear what
I have to say."

"Wounds, man! - speak out, if thou hast aught to say
against me or my friends. This shall be a free land for speech,

Master Cocklescraft - free to all men: it is so already, let me
tell you, to us who wear our swords - however, his Lordship and
his Lordship's brangling church-bullies would fain force it down
our throats to be silent, with what you call sedition."

"Your flurry is but spent breath, Master Coode. If you
will allow me an instant's private speech with you, I will open
myself in somewhat that may be for your interest to hear. The
bench of a public tavern does not well become the matter of my
speaking."

"Ha, a private conference and on matter of moment!"
ejaculated Coode. "Then follow me, Master Cocklescraft, by
the Town House path, amongst the cedars on yon bank. Now,
sir, you may speak your mind though it were enough to hang a
countryside," said Coode, as he strode slowly in advance of the
skipper until they found themselves enveloped by the thicket of
cedar.

"I have heard it whispered," quoth the skipper, "since my
arrival in the port, that you and others have been brewing
mischief, and are like to come to scratches with his Lordship's
men of the buff."

"And dost thou come to me with this fool's errand, Master
Skipper?" interrupted the burgess. "Are you sent hither, sirrah,
to drain me of a secret which you may commend to the notice of
the Proprietary for your own advancement in his good favor?
By my hilt, I have a mind to rap thee about the pate with my
whinyard!"

"Tush, cool thy courage, valiant Captain, or spend it where
it may give thee more profit. I come to thicken thy hell-broth
with new spices of my own devising, - not to weaken it. I say
again, I have heard it whispered that you have bloody fancies
in the wind. I care not to inquire what they are, but knowing
you have no good will towards the council and their friends, I

have a hand to help in any devil's crotchet your plot may give
life to. Besides, the Olive Branch is a more spiteful imp than
she looks to be, - and you may, perchance, stand in need,
hereafter, of a salt-water helpmate. I can commend her to your
liking, Captain Coode."

Coode gazed with a steadfast and incredulous eye, for some
moments, in the face of the skipper. At last he asked - "Art
thou in earnest, Master Cocklescraft? - By G - if thou comest
here to entrap me, I will have thee so bestowed that the kites
shall feed upon thy bowels before the breath be out of thy
body!"

"And so they may, if I deceive you," replied the skipper,
coolly. "Put me to the proof, Captain, - put me to the proof,
and if I fail you may fatten all the kites of St. Mary's with my
body."

"Are you willing to say this before witnesses?" inquired
Coode.

"A legion - if they hate the friends of the council as I hate
them."

"Then come to-night to Master Chiseldine's. You shall find
me and others there. Until then, it may be wise that we hold
no more discourse together. And so now we part."

Cocklescraft promised to keep the appointment, and took his
leave of the burgess who walked onward to the Town House.
Here, Coode found Willy of the Flats busy in setting up against
the trunk of the mulberry a sheet of paper, designed, according
to the custom of the town, to advertise some matter of interest
to the inhabitants. To the question, "What have you in the
wind, Willy?" - the fiddler's reply was an invitation to the
Captain to inform himself by a perusal of the paper. He
accordingly read as follows:

"ORDER OF COUNCIL.

"License given to
Stark Whittle and Sergeant Traverse
to
play a prize at the several weapons belonging to the Noble
Science (such as shall be agreed on by them) publickly at such
place in or near St. Marie's City, as they shall for this day
appoint: provided that no foul play be used, nor any riots or
disturbance tending to the breach of his Lordship's peace, be by
them or any of their associates thereupon offered. Dated at his
Lordship's mansion, in the City of St. Marie's, this 9th day of
October, Anno Domini, 1681.

"J. LLEWELLIN, Clerk."

"On the common, behind the Town House in St. Marie's
City, by permission of an order of Council, as above recited, a
trial of skill shall be performed between Stark Whittle and
Sergeant Gilbert Travers, two masters of the Noble Science of
Defence, at four of the clock in the afternoon of Thursday the
twenty-third of October instant.

"I, Stark Whittle, of the town of Stratford, England, who
have fought thirty-one times at Hockley in the Hole, at Portugal,
and in divers parts of the West Indies, and never left a stage to
any man, do invite Gilbert Travers to meet and exercise at the
several weapons following, viz:

Back Sword,
Sword and Buckler,
Sword and Dagger,
Case of Falchons,
Single Falchon.

"I, Gilbert
Travers, sergeant of musketeers, who formerly
served in the Walloon Guard of His Highness the Prince of
Orange, and hath held the degree of Master of The Noble
Science of Defence in forty-seven prizes, besides four that I

fought as a provost before I took said degree, will not, in regard
to the fame of Stark Whittle, fail to meet this brave inciter at
the time and place appointed; desiring a clear stage and from
him no favor.

"VIVAT
REX."

"This promises well,
for a fair sport, Willy," said Coode;
"they are both pretty fellows with the sword. Who has set this
matter a foot?"

"I heard, an it please your worship,"
replied the fiddler: "it
is near a fortnight since, - that Stark Whittle and the Sergeant,
being together at an ale-drinking, on an afternoon, at Master
Weasel's ordinary, and having got into a merry pin, must needs
fall into an argument, and thereupon into a debate, as men
commonly do now-a-days, upon church matters. Whereupon Stark,
- you know, Master Coode," said Willy, touching the burgess
on the rib with his knuckle and speaking, in a confidential tone,
with a short dry laugh, - "Stark is a born devil on our side of
the question, - whereupon he raises his voice against the
mumbling of masses, as he calls it, and the pictures and images and
the rest of the trumpery; - while the Sergeant sticks up, like a
true soldier, for the army of martyrs and the canons and what
not besides. So, when words got high, and Stark began to be
puzzled by some of Gilbert's quiddities which he learned from the
priests, - he whips off from the church and turns the discourse
upon sword-craft. And thereupon, after some crowing by Gilbert,
Stark takes him short with a challenge to play a prize - which
the Sergeant accepted, out of hand. Then it was left to Colonel
Talbot to bring it to the council, and the next thing I hear of it
is that Colonel Talbot sends me here to set this writing concerning
the whole matter, against the mulberry before the Town
House door."

Before Willy had got through this account of the origin of
Stark Whittle's challenge, Godfrey had come to the spot.

"We may find an occasion in this prize fight that shall jump
with our plot, Lieutenant," said Coode. "What think you
Richard Cocklescraft had to tell me?"

"I cannot guess."

"Why, that these shavelings, who meddle so much in the
affairs of the province and rule the council, are downright
knaves; - that his Lordship is no better than a sneaking dotard;
the council themselves but white-livered whelps of the litter of
Babylon, and that the whole brood of craw thumpers, taking in
master and serving-man all round, are but scurvy thieves who
deserve, each and all, to be set in the stocks. Now, there is
a wise skipper! - a clear-sighted, conscientious wight, who has
seen his errors and confesses them honestly! This Master
Cocklescraft has promised me to meet us at Chiseldine's to-night,
which I put it to him to do by way of test to his honesty. If he
come not there, I shall hold that he has cozened me with a
base, juggling, papistical lie. And in that case, George Godfrey,
I desire you to set thy mark upon him; - dost hear? So, until
we meet again at Master Chiseldine's, good even, Lieutenant."

The residence of Chiseldine stood upon the river, a short
distance beyond the upper limits of the town, from which it was
separated by the small creek which I have heretofore described
as bounding the common. This creek, at its embouchure where
it crossed the river beach, was reduced into a narrow strait,
scarcely, in the ordinary state of the tides, beyond the compass
of an active man's leap. Here a small bridge gave to the
townspeople access at all times to the dwelling-house of Master
Chiseldine.

When the twilight had subsided, some three or four visitors
were found assembled under this roof, and their number in the

course of an hour gradually increased to as many more.
Amongst these, Coode and Godfrey were the first to arrive;
they were soon followed by a person of no small influence in
stimulating the disorders of that time, - the Reverend Master
Yeo - an active and subtle churchman of the English Church,
whose emaciated figure, meek countenance, and puritanical
simplicity of costume, contrasted with a restless and passion-fraught
eye, presented an impersonation of a busy, political ecclesiastic.
The host, Master Kenelm Chiseldine, though a young man, had
already arrived at some authority in the House of Burgesses by
his persevering and zealous hostility to the Proprietary, and had,
through the popularity which generally follows resistance to the
established order of things, obtained such a control over the
course of that unhappy dissension which agitated the peace of
the province, as entitled him to be considered, in modern phrase,
one of the leaders of the movement. He now appeared in this
conclave, in that mixed character of burgher and soldier -
partially armed, though professing the pursuits of a man of
peace - which the disturbances of the period had rendered
common amongst the inhabitants. Conspicuous, at least for his
estimate of himself, in this assemblage, whither the love of having
something to do, and a thirst for a patriot's immortality, had
lured him, was little Corporal Abbot the tailor - a wight
remarkable for the vast disproportion between the smallness of his
person and the greatness of his aspirations, and still more
remarkable for an upspringing walk and an ambitious, erect
carriage of the head. Stricken with the grandeur of Lieutenant
Godfrey's achievements, and emulous of like glory in the field of
Mars, he had, by degrees, wormed himself into an intimacy with
the Lieutenant, who, one day, in a freak, settled the little hero's
destiny, by enlisting him for a special campaign with the Rangers.
In the course of this tour of duty, which lasted sixty days, Ned

Abbot had the good fortune to capture three Indian women,
whom he took for warriors belonging to the tribe of King Tiquassino
- a chief whose name diffused a common terror through the
province. The Rangers conspired to magnify the hazard and
glory of this exploit, and his commander exalted him to the
honorable and responsible duties of a corporal. Ever since that
event, the tailor looked upon himself as a martialist approved in
battle and entitled to boast of his prowess. Being thus seduced
into the list of fame, he became a devoted adherent of the
Lieutenant, and, as is customary amongst the votaries of greater
men than even Lieutenant George Godfrey, he suffered himself
to be embarked in all the hazards and committed to all the
consequences of his leader's political imbroglios. The corporal's time
was divided between the needle and the broadsword; - at one
season, when work was slack, playing the man of war in bloodless
forays, and at another, when fighting was superabundant, stitching
doublets and patching decayed jerkins with a commendable
tranquillity of spirit.

Such were the principal personages who were now convened
to deliberate upon the course of that secret rebellion which, in a
few years later than this period, terminated in what is known in
the history of Maryland as the Protestant Revolution. Their
more immediate purpose was to devise measures for the rescue or
liberation of the Fendalls. Towards the accomplishment of this
design, the discontented in various parts of the province had
associated under private forms of organization, and held themselves
in readiness to obey the signal for an outbreak, whenever
the leaders amongst the burgesses should determine the fit
moment to have arrived. When these persons were once banded
together in arms, their plan was to drive matters to an immediate
issue with the Proprietary, by seizing the fort, and even by
assailing his person. Their general scheme of rebellion was

supposed to derive its hopes of success not only from the increasing
bitterness which daily grew up between the two religious sects,
but from the avowed inclination of the Court at White Hall to
give an established Church to the province, and to restrain the
exercise of religious toleration towards the Catholic party. Add
to this the fact that a preponderating majority of the inhabitants
were of the Protestant faith, and it will be seen that the
conspirators had no very strong reason to apprehend any fatal
miscarriage of their scheme.

It was late before Cocklescraft made his appearance in this
assembly. He had gone into the inn, where he remained in
solitude until after nightfall; and when the retiring day had left
everything in shade, he sallied forth, and indulged his moody
and fevered temper in lonely musing, as he rambled through the
town and along the margin of the river. Callous as he was to
the ordinary sensibilities of humanity, it cost him a struggle to
pursue his vindictive purpose to the extent of making war against
that faith, the devotion to which, in his bosom, was superstition
- a superstition that clung to his mind through all the iniquities
of his life amongst the Brothers of the Coast, and which he now
trembled to renounce. His self-communing on this subject had
wrought him up to a state of mind that bordered upon insanity,
exhibiting itself, at times, in bursts of apparently jocular
recklessness, and driving him to the stimulus of strong drink.

His absence from Chiseldine's began to be remarked. Master
Yeo had already let fall - when Coode spoke of his interview
with the skipper - some expressions of distrust in the sincerity of
such a conversion as the tale implied; and more than one of the
company hinted at a trick contrived by the Papists to entrap
them. Private mutterings of dissatisfaction and threats of retribution
were growled in whispered tones. Corporal Abbot was
remarkably fierce and denunciatory. "By my sword, neighbors!"

he said, with a scowling eyebrow, "an I find it should
turn out that we have been paltered with by that briny ruffler,
it shall go hard with him but he shall find that I wear cold iron,
- if he learn as much from never a man in the town beside. And
as we are all here together, where we may speak our minds," he
added in a stage-whisper, with a significant solemnity of maimer,
"I would have you know I do not put too much faith in the
honesty of these absolution and purgatory men: they are fishy
- fishy, masters," he said, laying his finger against his nose,
and looking portentously mysterious. "To my seeming, this
Richard Cocklescraft ever had a hang-dog -"

"Ay, that's true - a hang-dog devil in his looks," said Cocklescraft
himself, taking the parole from the speaker, as he strode
into the room immediately behind the Corporal, who stood near
the floor. His brow was flushed, his air hurried and disturbed,
and he had entered the outer door without knocking or ceremony
of announcement, and thus came into the apartment where
the meeting was assembled, at unawares, and at the moment that
his name was upon the Corporal's lips. His cap was drawn conceitedly
over one side of his forehead, and his scabbarded sword,
detached from the belt, was borne in his hand. A constrained
smile gave a disagreeable and unusual expression to his features,
and there was an air of affected joviality in his carriage when
he interrupted the boasting martialist and accosted the company.
"Nay, Master Corporal, you need not shrink, for your brave
speaking: 'tis a license of a man of the wars to rail at such as
leave their colors; and as I have left mine, I stand under your
reproof. - God save you, my masters, for a set of merry contrivers
of mischief! By St. Iago, but you make a snug house of it here
together! Master Chiseldine, Captain Coode would have me
come here to-night to speak before witnesses. Presto, change!
is the word. I have done with the cowls and the cassocks, and

with all who bow to the honorable council: I have done with
my Lord's gentlemen of taffeta and buckram; - yea, and have
a reckoning to make which shall be remembered in Maryland.
Santo Rosario! but I will make it," he added, as he spoke
through his clenched teeth, "when the foremost man amongst
you all shall cry shame for pity! - We shall foreswear
water-drinking, comrades! I have renounced it to-day; for an hour
past I have fed upon the milk of Scheidam - most wholesome
usquebaugh, without taint of Papistry in it: I fetched it myself
from Holland to the Crow and Archer. Ha! it has baptized
me in the faith of our new quarrel. I will swear by it as your
only holy water."

"Master Cocklescraft, I would you had brought us a cooler
head - though you are not the less welcome," said Chiseldine.
"Think you, sir, you can strike, if there be need for it, at those
you have lately consorted with?"

"Strike!" exclaimed Cocklescraft, "ay, by Saint Anthony,
can I strike! on the broad sea, or green land, - in pell-mell or
orderly fight, - amongst pikes and muskets, or grenades and
culverins. I can strike with sword or dagger, - at waking man or
sleeping babe - gray head or green: - strike, Master Chiseldine,
to drum and trumpet, or to the music of shrieking wives and
sobbing maidens. I have been nursed to the craft. What else
should have brought me here to-night?"

"A most monstrous and horrid papistical schooling the wolf
has had!" piously ejaculated Master Yeo, in the ear of a
neighbor. "This fellow would have been a Guido Fawkes in time."

"We must use him, nevertheless, reverend Master Yeo,"
said Coode; "we shall teach him gentleness, when we have got
over the rough work of our plot."

The parson assented by a nod of the head; and then
approaching the skipper, inquired, "What argument, worthy

Master Cocklescraft, hath persuaded you to renounce your old
associates? There may be much edification in the experience
of a man so thoroughly converted."

"That concerns no man here," replied the seaman bluntly.
"Enough for you, sir, that I have changed my colors. I come
to you not alone, neither: I have men to back me, and follow
where I lead, and a trim bark which may serve a turn when you
are put in straits. If you will have service out of me, I ask no
return for it, but that you set quickly about the work. Do you
want motive for present quarrel? I can give it to you. I
know it for a truth, that the King hath sent orders hither to
dislodge every Papist from his office in this province; and I
know, further, that the council do, upon deliberation, refuse to
obey the King's bidding. There is a handle for rebellion which
may serve you for a throat-cutting! But what is a royal order
to Charles Calvert if the wind of his humor set contrary against
it? A feather. - Who are they that counsel my Lord Baltimore?
The men that feed their own idleness on the substance
of the honest folk who toil; - the men who flatter his Lordship
with crafty courtesies. First amongst them is that old grout-head,
Anthony Warden: I would have you note him, masters,
for a chief leech; a most toping blood-sucker. To whom should
the offices of this province belong? To such as the good pleasure
of the burgesses may appoint -"

"Surely," grunted Coode.

"To such as the King would have -"

"Without question," breathed the reverend Parson Yeo.

"Then, there are reasons for rebellion as thick as you could
wish, masters," continued Cocklescraft, by way of close to an
harangue which showed him qualified to take a rank amongst
the demagogues of the time not inferior to that of the most
successful masters of the art of agitation at the present day.

"So, fall to, and make yourselves worshipful dignitaries, - men
of consideration amongst your neighbors: I am here to help."

"Bravely spoken!" shouted Coode, as the skipper concluded
this successful essay in political oratory, whilst several voices
re-echoed the commendation; "that is the true aspect of our plot,
and Master Cocklescraft shows himself a worthy and apt scholar.
The sooner we come to buffets the better. We have force enough
to match the pikes and muskets of his Lordship, and make ourselves
masters of the fort. By a placard set against the mulberry
at the Town House this afternoon, it seems we are to have
a prize-play between Stark Whittle and Sergeant Travers, next
Wednesday week. This will not fail to bring our friends of the
country swarming to the sport, and the occasion will be apt for us
to manage the appointments of a general revolt."

This suggestion receiving the countenance of the conclave,
was adopted, and the execution of the particulars committed to
Coode himself. For the present, it was thought advisable that
no immediate step be taken in reference to the rescue of the
Fendalls, as it was very obvious, from various intelligence which had
been brought to the conspirators, that a crisis was near at hand
which must be decisive of the question of strength between the
two parties.

CHAPTER XXII.

She
sat hie on the tap tower stane,
Nae
waiting may was there;
She
lows'd the gowd busk frae her breast,
The
kaim frae 'mang her hair,
She
wiped the tear blobs frae her ee,
An'
looked lang and sair.
THE
MERMAID OF GALLOWAY.

IT is proper, before we
move onward with our tale, to give some
account of affairs at the Rose Croft, towards which the interest
of our lady readers especially is very naturally directed.

After Willy of the Flats had departed with the missive that
was designed to frustrate the duel, there was, for a considerable
time, a general restlessness manifested by the household,
extending from Alice Warden and Blanche, downward through the
entire roll of domestics; for Willy had not omitted to avail himself
of the occasion to give Mistress Coldcale a circumstantial
history of the whole affair of the quarrel between the skipper
and the Secretary, in the presence of Michael Mossbank, as well
as of the housemaids, the cook and the scullion, all of whom were
opportunely assembled in the kitchen, at work amongst the litter
and wreck of the last night's feast, and were, of course, thrown
by the recital into a condition of most extraordinary doubt and
curiosity as to the upshot of the adventure. The restlessness to
which I have referred seemed equally to defy the consolations of
philosophy and the power of remaining stationary in any one
place, by any one body, for two consecutive minutes. The

common topic of apprehension was that Willy might not reach Father
Pierre in season, or if he did, that Father Pierre might not find
aid at hand to intercept the combatants; two very reasonable
grounds of distrust, which brought about that nervous agitation
which is not uncommon in female councils. In the present case,
after much tribulation and perplexity in the two sisters, it was
thought expedient to call Mistress Coldcale to the consultation
regarding what was proper to be done in the emergency; and
the matter was now entertained in an ambulatory debate,
commencing in the parlor, and moving successively into the hall,
thence upstairs to a chamber window, down again to the front
door, and finally to the verge of the cliff, at the extremity of the
lawn overlooking the river. At this last spot, Mistress Coldcale
cast her eyes over the water, and there discovered the skipper's
brigantine, which, as my reader is aware, had been dropped down
to this anchorage early in the morning. This phenomenon
straightway suggested a most ingenious expedient, which, from
the vivacity of its enunciation, it was obvious the housekeeper
considered as decisive of the question under deliberation.

"Good luck the while!" she exclaimed, "if there is not
Master Cocklescraft's own vessel, the Olive Branch, lying fast
and firm, in the very mouth of the creek. How lucky for us!
The skipper, Mistress Alice, as we are women, is on board, and
intends to go thence to Cornwaleys's Cross; - now, as he must
come within hail of our landing, we have only to station Michael
Mossbank here with the long Spanish fowling-piece, and cause
him to warn Cocklescraft, in the name of Master Warden, to
forbear coming up the creek on peril of his life. Your father
did so in Fendalls' first rebellion, when Sawahega and his men
frightened the priests of St. Inigoe's yonder out of their wits, by
sailing into the creek. Why shouldn't we try it with the skipper?
Michael shall fire upon him if he dare to make light of the

warning; and lest bloodshed might come of it, the gardener may
take his aim somewhat aslant and overhead. I will promise you,
no sailor ventures another stroke of an oar forward after that."

"Mercy on us, Mistress Bridget!" ejaculated Alice Warden,
"would you involve us in a war with the skipper and his surly
comrades?"

"At least till Master Anthony Warden, your worshipful
father, comes home and takes the matter into his own hands, I
would make war as we may, against Cocklescraft, or any one else
that should come into our waters to harm Master Albert. Troth,
would I!"

"I am sure, I do not know what to do," said Blanche, not
heeding the belligerent device of the housekeeper, and looking
ruefully, through a tear, over the waste of waters - "I am sure
I do not know what to do, unless it be to send for our dear Lady
Maria."

As this last seemed to be the most practicable hint which had
yet been suggested, it was seized upon and adopted with entire
unanimity; and the consultation was immediately adjourned to
carry it into operation. Mistress Alice and the housekeeper
hurried to speed measures to that end, and Blanche remained fixed
upon the bank in a mute study, apparently watching the people
upon the deck of the brigantine.

Luckily, before Michael Mossbank could make ready a horse
to do the errand which Mistress Alice had confided to him, the
Lady Maria was descried approaching the house, mounted on her
ambling pony, and followed by a body-guard in the shape of an
old serving-man of the Lord Proprietary. In brief space she
alighted at the door.

The good lady had heard nothing of the tidings which had
diffused such sadness over the household at the Rose Croft, and,
it may be imagined, now received them with a manifestation of

concern commensurate not only with her regard for the Secretary,
but also with the peculiar solicitude which she was accustomed
to extend over all matters relating to the affairs of the young
people within her brother's dominion.

"Oh, the bloody-minded skipper! and oh, rash Master
Albert!" she exclaimed, after the narrative was concluded. "I
foresaw it - I dreamed of it - I almost knew some mischief was
hatching, ever since that wicked look which I marked the skipper
give to Master Albert, when the Secretary chid him for being too
free in his importunity regarding the mantle - as you may remember,
Blanche."

"I wish the fingers of the sempstress over sea had been
blistered ere they stitched that foul mantle," said Blanche,
"and the skipper in the bottom of the Red Sea, who brought it
here!"

"I would rather wish that Master Albert should find no
skipper at Cornwaleys's Cross to-day," returned the lady, not
knowing exactly what to wish; "or that no such place as
Cornwaleys's Cross was to be found in the province."

"Find no skipper there!" exclaimed Blanche; "if a poor
wish of mine might bring it to pass, Master Albert's sword should
deal so sharply with him that he should never again set foot in
the Port. It all comes of that foolish birth-day ball which I
must needs be persuaded by Grace Blackiston to give. I would I
were not eighteen for five years to come!"

"If harm should befall Master Albert," interposed the housekeeper,
who felt herself privileged in this time of general tribulation
to give her opinion, "it would be for your comfort that
you never saw nor would see eighteen. If I were Mistress
Blanche, I know I should never find my natural rest again, to
lose so sweet a gentleman as the Secretary. But the crosses of
this life come not by desert, nor spare the best, as the proverb

"Surely, Mistress Coldcale," said Blanche, nettled at the
housekeeper's freedom, as well as at her undervaluing the
Secretary's prowess, "thou hast no warrant for such speech. Master
Albert hath a valiant heart and a hand to defend himself, and
may match with the skipper in any quarrel. And if he were not
his match," she added, with an ill-concealed struggle to appear
indifferent to the result, "he is no kinsman of mine, I trow, that
I should wish myself dead." And having thus given vent to an
emotion suggested by that reserve which a maiden feels who first
begins to be conscious of a secret affection for a lover, - a
sentiment that until this day had slumbered unacknowledged at her
heart, - she covered her face with her hands, and left the room,
to weep in private.

At the top of the Collector's dwelling was a small balcony or
platform that had been constructed for an observatory, from
which vessels approaching the Port might be described with a
perspective glass at the most remote seaward point. From this
elevation, looking inland, the road leading from the town around
the head of St. Inigoe's, might be discerned for some extent along
the plain, and at intervals, through the forest, where it became
tangled amongst the hills. To this balcony, in the disquietude
of her mind, Blanche had gone secretly to look out upon the
road and note those who travelled upon it, hoping by this means
to satisfy herself on that anxious question whether any persons
were abroad to prevent the duel. Long she gazed there, with
her brow shaded by her hand; and when within an hour of
noon, she discerned two figures, on horseback, moving upon the
hill-side almost at a walk, - it was with an emotion that produced
a shudder through her frame that she recognized at that distance
the short dark cloak and the low cap and feather of the
Secretary.

"Oh, blessed Mother!" she exclaimed involuntarily, "it is
Master Albert: our care has been but lost. So leisurely he
moves along, his path has not been followed; nor is it like to be,
for noon has almost come, and I see no Father Pierre behind,
although the road is open townward to my sight full two good
miles. And he hath Master Dauntrees with him, as I take that
companion to be; and Master Dauntrees would not guide him so
much at ease if there were followers. - Jesu Maria! hither comes
the skipper's boat, skimming the water with such speed as makes
it sure he shall reach the Cross in time," she continued, as she
turned her eye from the land to the river, and saw the shallop
cleaving the surface of St. Inigoe's creek, abreast the Rose
Croft, under the lusty stroke of two oarsmen, and hearing
Cocklescraft and his comrades, so near to her that she was able
to distinguish, upon the bench of the boat, the swords which
were to be used in the combat. "Well-a-day! it is a fore-doomed
trial, which may not be averted by any caution of mine.
The Holy Martyrs guard our good Master Albert, and turn
danger from his path! as for his gentleness and bravery he doth
deserve."

The maiden muttered these short and almost incoherent
aspirations, half in self-communion, half in prayer, during which
a melancholy expression of distress rested upon her countenance,
and often, like the forsaken lady of the ballad,

"She
wiped the tear blobs frae her ee,
An'
looked lang and sair."

Whilst she thus
indulged her secret grief, voices were heard
below in the court-yard.

"It is the skipper's boat, Michael Mossbank," said the voice
of Bridget Coldcale, "and the skipper in it, with his rufflers at
his side. The fowling-piece, Michael! - the long Spanish gun
you shoot ducks with in the winter! - haste ye, man, and fetch

it, or they will be out of thy reach! Was ever such a lurdan -
such a poking old elf - I have the heart to load and fire with
my own hand. These headstrong men!"

"Go to your kitchen-craft, you silly-witted woman!" returned
the voice of the gardener, with a hoarse laugh: "thou'rt a fool
with thy prating of the fowling-piece! Take a ladle of hot
water and fling it in the wind - it will scald yon sailors,
perchance - 'tis but a furlong cast: the creek is but a half mile
wide."

"It was not so wide, you crusty mole catcher, but that his
worship from this bank could turn that savage Sawahega and his
canoes back as they came."

"Tush, Dame Bridget, go and peel your onions! - What do
you known of Sawahega and his canoes? Were there not fifty
of us with musket and culverin to boot - Let these women
prate and the world will he so thick set with lies that they will
darken the light of the sun - a man would lose his way in
daytime, unless he bore a lantern."

This last hit of the gardener's seemed to be decisive, for the
voice of Mistress Coldcale was immediately afterwards heard in
the house, showing that she had evidently retreated.

"Ah!" cried the maiden, who still retained her position in
the balcony, as she now unexpectedly discerned the figures of the
Proprietary and Father Pierre riding at a pretty brisk gait along
the plain from the direction of the town - "a blessing on him!
Father Pierre has got our message and is on his way with his
good Lordship. The saints lend them speed! - though I fear
they go too late. The skipper's boat has turned into St. Luke's
and will be at the Cross ere his Lordship reach the hills, -
though when he reaches the hills his journey is but half performed."

It was not long after this that she heard the bell of St.
Inigoe's across the creek, pealing its customary announcement of

noon, and still the Proprietary and the priest had not yet ceased
to be observed on the road descending from the highland. The
boat of the skipper had disappeared in the recesses of St. Luke's,
and the Secretary with his companion had already abundant
time to reach the appointed ground of the combat. Overcome
by doubt, suspense, and apprehension, Blanche retreated, with a
stealthy step, as if afraid even to hear the noise of her own footfall
to her chamber, and there, with a throbbing heart and trembling
frame, threw herself upon her bed. In this condition she
lay conjuring up the phantoms of her imagination, and giving
full scope to that distressing augury of evil, which, in moments
when we are compelled passively to contemplate the clangors to
which those we love are exposed, impels us by an almost
superstitious presentiment to believe and expect the worst. When
two hours and more had elapsed, the housekeeper with precipitate
haste thrust herself panting into the chamber, and roused
the maiden from this unhappy meditation, with an
abruptly-communicated piece of news.

"His Lordship has made safe work of it, Mistress Blanche, -
most joyful work of it! - bless him for a charitable, careful,
painstaking Lord, - and bless you, Mistress Blanche, for your
thoughtful wisdom in sending to Father Pierre. Oh, I have happy news
for you!"

"Tell it, I pray you, Mistress Bridget!"

"Michael Mossbank, my dear young lady, comes but now,
riding in at full speed from the mill of St. Inigoe's, where he went
an hour ago to have a chat with Bolt the miller -"

"In mercy, tell me the pith of this story at once," interposed
the maiden with an impatience which could not brook the
housekeeper's prolixity.

"Well, there, Michael spied, as he was talking to the miller,
- he spied, riding along the road from Cornwaleys's Cross

towards the town, who do you think? - Why, his Lordship and
Father Pierre, both looking as long-faced as the oldest drudge
horse that takes a meal-bag to mill - and after them, some good
distance behind, riding as silent as if they were going to a
funeral, Master Albert, - our dear Master Albert, - and that
old sinner and evil adviser, Captain Dauntrees of the Fort. And
as this plainly signified that all was over and no harm done,
Michael mounts his nag and comes clinking home here as fast as
four legs can bring him. Isn't it precious news, Mistress?"

"Art sure of it, Mistress Coldcale?" demanded Blanche,
with a sudden sunshine bursting out upon her face and chasing
away the clouds of grief which but a moment before lowered
upon it - "Art truly sure of it, sweet Bridget?"

"As sure of it, - bless you for a happy young lady! - as
that my name was Bridget Skewer till my dear goodman, peace
to his bones! changed it into Coldcale."

Blanche laughed outright, and went straight into the parlor to
share the pleasure of this piece of intelligence with her sister and
the Lady Maria. These ladies, however, had already been
apprised of all that the housekeeper had told to the maiden, and
the pony being in waiting at the door, the sister of the Proprietary
hurried off with a speed stimulated by her eagerness to learn
every thing from her brother, leaving Alice and the maiden happy
in finding that at least no serious harm had befallen the Secretary.

Albert Verheyden, although keenly sensitive to the displeasure
of the Proprietary, in reviewing his conduct throughout the
quarrel with the skipper, felt a lively satisfaction at the course
he had pursued. The provocation had been so flagrant, and the
bearing of Cocklescraft towards him so evidently exasperated by
the favor he had won from the maiden, that it was with a natural
exhultation
he looked back upon the recent meeting and
its

He had foiled his enemy
at his boasted weapon, and sent
him humbled from the field. But what was chiefly pleasing to
him in the review was, that the strife had arisen in the cause of
Blanche Warden, and that he had, like a knight of ancient
adventure, rescued her from the importunity of a disagreeable
suitor. The reproof of the Proprietary was almost lost sight of
in the gratulation of his own heart upon the successful issue of
this his first essay of manhood; and, besides, he felt a secret
consciousness that however his Lordship might openly chide him
for this infraction of the law, still he could not undervalue him
for his prompt resentment of an offense to which, especially in
that age, it would have been a foul dishonor to submit. Then
the bland interposition and affectionate support of Father Pierre,
who rebuked as became a churchman the rude appeal to arms,
and yet stood by him as a friend to share the pleasure of his
triumph, gave him still further confidence that he should lose
neither the countenance nor the esteem of the Proprietary by what
had happened. With a disburdened heart, therefore, and a
contented spirit of self-approbation, he went to his bed that night,
and enjoyed a sleep as refreshing and deep as the slumber of
childhood.

The duel was attended by another consequence still more important.
The Secretary had become the champion of the maiden
of the Rose Croft, and it was no more than a natural sequence,
justified and approved by all experience, that he should claim to
think of her as his mistress, and to render the open homage of a
lover. Heretofore his demeanor towards her had been marked

by a quiet humility, an almost worshipping deference - reserved
and struggling to conceal the passion which glowed in his bosom:
but he now became aware of a sudden change in his estimate of
himself, and of a consciousness that his manhood entitled him to
speak to the mistress of his heart with bolder speech and more
unquestionable pretension.

When morning broke upon him it found his spirits enlivened
by gay thoughts, and his countenance made cheerful by the
impression of pleasant dreams, - dreams that had conducted him
into fairy bowers where all the images that enchanted his view
bore some reference to the Rose of St. Mary's. He sprang from
his couch with the buoyancy of unusual health, and, whilst he
made his toilet, his mind ran with an impatient resolve upon an
early visit to the Rose Croft.

Accordingly, as soon in the day as he might with propriety
visit at the Collector's dwelling - for all at once he grew
scrupulous as to these observances which, until now, had never
entered into his reckonings - he was mounted on his steed and
forth and away, a gallant cavalier seeking the bower of his
lady-love.

When he arrived at the Rose Croft, Blanche and her father
were just prepared to set out on a morning's walk, and were
upon the lawn sauntering around the rustic temple which
contained the altar of St. Therese.

"Welcome, Master Verheyden," said the Collector with a
brisk and cordial greeting; "heartily welcome! Zounds, man,
you had brought us into a fine coil yesterday! - my women here,
Alice and Blanche, yea and Mistress Bridget and Meg and Sue,
- the whole of them, - were as much astir as if the Sinniquoes
had made an inroad upon us. You have been playing the
buckler-man since we saw you last; - you must try your hand at
edge and point, Master Albert. Marry, after this thou mayst

wear thy toledo with an air, cock thy beaver, and draw at a
word, like a pretty fellow of the rapier. Give us a hand, good
Albert, - I thank thee for the service thou hast done in lowering
the plume of that saucy sea-urchin. Why didst not run him
through the body?"

The Secretary was not prepared for this bluff questioning,
and as he took the Collector's hand, his check reddened and he
replied with a modest mien, "I sought no quarrel with the
skipper, and am thankful that we parted with so little hurt."

Notwithstanding the complacency with which Albert regarded
his recent conduct, and the gaiety of heart with which he now
visited the Rose Croft, and despite his resolution to assume a
bolder carriage in the presence of Blanche, his bearing at this
moment was characterized by more than ordinary diffidence and
show of respect. It was even with some confusion that he now
approached the maiden and offered her his hand; and, what was
equally to be remarked, Blanche Warden, on her part, seemed to
have lost that confiding and unguarded tone of intimacy with
which she was ever in the habit of receiving the Secretary. Still,
joy sparkled in her eye and warmed her features with a genial
flush, as she noted Albert's humbleness in her presence, and read
in it his more profound sense of the value of her favor.

"Our birth-day feast," he said, after saluting the maiden,
"will be well remembered in the province for the general
content it has given. All voices are praising Mistress Blanche:
and she has won many sincere wishes from the townspeople for
long and happy life."

"Alas!" replied the maiden, "whatever others may think,
I have wept sorely for that unlucky feast. I did not wish it at
first, and, in the end, had better reason to grieve that I had been
persuaded to make it."

come most seasonably hither: this girl must have me consent to
trail my old limbs after her, like a young gallant, this morning,
in a ramble to enjoy the air, as she calls it - simply because she
has happened to leave her nest with the merry chirp of a spring
lark. You shall take my place as a fitter man for such service.
There, Blanche, is the Secretary for thee - a better squire than
thy old rusty-jointed father! I have a more profitable calling
on hand to visit my fields. Ha, Master Albert, you wear a love
token on your breast!" added the old gentleman, with a playful
smile, as he took in his hand a small miniature set in gold, which
hung by a chain from the Secretary's neck, and had accidentally
escaped unobserved from beneath his vest in the action of
dismounting from his horse; "some lady of the other side of the
water, eh? And on the back, here, letters which my eyes are
too old to make out without my glasses - a posy, no doubt:
'Let fools great Cupid's yoke disdain' thou know'st the song,
Master; 'tis the way of all living."

" ‘Tis my poor mother's likeness," said Albert, gravely, at the
same time restoring the miniature to his bosom. "She put it
round my neck with her own hands whilst she lay upon her
deathbed: and I have worn it ever since. 'Tis the only remembrance
I have of her. I was a child when she died, but not too young
to feel the loss of one who loved me so well."

The tear started into the Secretary's eye as he spoke, and
when Mr. Warden saw it, a tear also came into his, which he
brushed away with his hand, saying, with an assumed vivacity,
"Pardon, good lad! a thousand times I ask your forgiveness
for my rude speech. I did not think of what I said: and I but
love thee the more for thy kind memory of thy mother. Hang
up care by his wing! the world is overstocked with it. You
will stay dinner with us, good master? I go forth to look after
some necessary affairs, and will be back before this girl has led

you her dance. At dinner I will have much to say to you
concerning that tarpaulin bully. A plague on the wool cap! I
could have found it in my heart to fight with him myself; -
my gray hairs against his raven locks! Do you know, Master
Verheyden, he was so saucy as to ask my leave to woo our girl
here - this Blanche of mine? See, how the child hoists her red
ensign on the check at the thought of it: - ay, and pressed it on
me so rudely, and with such clap-me-on-the-back familiarity, as
he would have used to cozen Mistress Dorothy of the Crow and
Archer out of a jack of ale. You should have spitted him on
your sword, for a public benefaction, and had the thanks of the
Mayor and Aldermen for your good works. I would as lief see
him so trussed as the haunch of a brocket in my own kitchen."

"Nay, my dear father," interrupted Blanche, as she saw a
storm rising on the Collector's brow, "pray you say no more
about the skipper. Master Albert does not like to be tasked
with discourse of his quarrel; and besides, the skipper -"

"Hath had his belly full, I warrant thou wouldst say, girl.
Well, well, I will order my horse, and away; so go your own
road. Farewell, Master Albert, until I see you again at
dinner."

The Secretary and the maiden now set forth upon their walk,
and directed their steps along the upper margin of the bank
which overhung the river, until they were soon shaded in the
forest that grew thickly upon the steep slope by which the plain
descended to the beach. Out of this bank, at frequent intervals,
gushed forth pure springs of water, that found their way to the
river through beds of matted grass and leaves. A light sunny
haze mantled the whole landscape of forest, field, and river, and
threw a warm and rich that over the perspective. The glass was
still green as in spring; and the woods glittered, as the light
breeze shook their bright and many-colored foliage, which

autumn had flung like a harlequin garb over their limbs. The
scene, at all times preeminent for its beauty, was now fraught
with its greatest attraction for the eye: and the genial temperature
of the season - that delightful period when the first frosts
vanish at the touch of the sun - still enhanced the pleasure which
the spectator felt in wandering abroad.

"Heaven hath garnished out no fairer land than this," said
the Secretary, as at length, after pursuing a path that wound
through this wilderness, - sometimes descending to the pebbly
beach and again rising to the level of the plain above, - Blanche
had seated herself upon the trunk of a fallen tree, in a position
from which the whole extent of the river, the fort, and the upper
headland, with the Town House, were visible; "nor is there a
nook upon this wide globe which I would more contentedly make
my home."

"I trust it will ever be your home, Master Albert," was the
maiden's reply; "they who come hither from the old world
seldom think of going back. You can find no reason to return."

"My fortunes are guided by our good Lord," returned the
Secretary, "and even now he sometimes speaks of going hence
again to England. With my own free will I should never leave
this sunny land. These woods are richer to my eye than pent-up
cities; these spreading oaks and stately poplars, than our groined
and shafted cathedrals and our cloistered aisles: yes, and I more
love to think of the free range of this woodland life, these
forest-fed deer, and flight of flocking wild fowl, than all the busy
assembling of careful men which throng the great marts of
trade."

"Surely his Lordship would not take you hence against your
will," said Blanche, thoughtfully. "Indeed we could not," - she
continued, and then suddenly checking herself, as if upon some
self-reproof for speaking more freely than was proper, added,

"I am but an humble secretary of his Lordship," interrupted
Albert, "and needs must follow as he shall command."

"He will not command it, Master Albert. Our dear Lady
Maria loves you well, as I have heard her say, and will persuade
his Lordship to command you stay."

"I need not his command," replied the Secretary; "it would
be enough for me I was not constrained to go hence; your wish,
Mistress Blanche, - nay, your permission would keep me here,
even if my inclination tended back again to the old world."

"My wish, Master Albert! how could I have other wish but
that you stay?" inquired the maiden, in all singleness of heart.
"Do we not sing and play together; ride, sail, hawk, and hunt
together? Have you not promised to render that history of the
good Chevalier into English for me? Am I not to be skilled in
the French tongue, under your teaching? Oh, how could I wish
other than that you stay with us, Master Albert?"

"Come what hazards may," said the Secretary, with deep
emotion, as he took the maiden's hand, "I swear by this good
day and by this beauteous world, that I will never leave thee."

"But few words more passed - and these were of such an
import as my reader may well conceive, from what has gone
before - till Albert Verheyden kneeled at the maiden's feet and
vowed unalterable devotion to her happiness, and rose a
betrothed lover. With lingering steps and freer speech, Blanche
hanging on Albert's arm, the plighted pair slowly returned to the
Rose Croft.

CHAPTER XXIII.

I
guess by all this quaint array
The
burghers hold their sports to-day.
SCOTT.

THE day appointed for
the prize-play was mild and clear; and
as the anticipation of the sport had created a stir throughout the
province, there was reason to expect a large attendance.

Stark Whittle had, within a year past, emigrated to the
dominions of the Proprietary, from Jamaica, and by dint of
trumpeting his own renown - an act for which the professors of his
craft were somewhat distinguished - had obtained the repute of
a skilful master of fence. Sergeant Travers had been several
years in the province, and had already established his fame, in
more than one trial, with such wandering professors of the Noble
Science as, at that era, were to be found in every quarter of
Christendom. Great expectations were therefore entertained of
an encounter of rare interest to the men of the sword - a class
which might be said to have comprehended not only the military
men of the times, and such gentlemen in civil life as were educated
in the use of the weapon, but also that extensive circle of
idlers, boasters, tavern-frequenters, and sport-loving gentry
which have always passed under the denomination of choice
spirits.

Under the direction of Colonel Talbot - the patron of all
sports and pastimes in the province - a platform, or stage of deal

boards, about twenty feet square and three feet above the ground,
had been constructed, near the centre of the common in the rear
of the Town House. A few paces from the platform stood a
flag-staff, from which floated a forked pennon bearing the device
of the provincial arms, ambitiously executed in oil by Master
Bister, the artist of the city. On a skirt of the common, some
six or eight tents marked the position of the Court of Guard,
formed by the garrison of the fort, under the command of
Nicholas Verbrack, the Lieutenant. Opposite to this encampment, a
range of booths had been erected by the townspeople, where was
displayed every variety of refreshment which the housekeeping
stores of the proprietors might afford. These booths were
distinguished by various devices in the way of signs; one presenting
a banner hung out on a pole with a rude representation of
a Cock in jack-boots and sword, with his neck stretched as in the
act of crowing, and a label from his bill having written on it,

"STARK
WHITTLE FOR EVER!"

whilst another
manifested its partisanship for the adverse champion,
by the device of a bull in armor, reared on his hind legs,
with the inscription,

"SERGEANT
TRAVERS.
THE
OLD SWORD AGAINST THE NEW BUCKLER."

Others were designated
simply by a green bush, the old sign of
good wine within. Amongst these temporary sheds was especially
to be noted one which was surmounted by a towering staff
bearing a flag embellished with the cross of St. Andrew, whose
proprietorship was sufficiently indicated by a flaring sign painted
on canvass, aiming, though not very perspicuously, to represent a
portraiture of the Crow and Archer, from the pallet of Master
Bister. Sundry legends, scrawled in charcoal over the front of

the booth, expressed the utmost impartiality between the combatants
and their several friends, as might be read in such as
"Honor to the brave," "A fair field and no favors," and others
of similar import equally guarding against the accident of
denoting the party of the host. Within the steed the saucy face of
our jolly Dame Dorothy might have been seen, long before the
appointed hour of the combat, as she busied herself in adjusting
matters to meet the expected pressure of the day.

Such was the picture presented on the Town Common about
noon. Already a large number of the inland inhabitants had
arrived, and troops of new comers were every moment seen
halting their horses in the vicinity of the common: others were
discerned as far off as the inequalities of the country allowed,
journeying down from the distant highlands, or moving forward
in irregular squadrons across the plain by every road which led
to the town. The river presented a scene not less animated.
Boats of various sizes, from a pinnace down to a canoe, were
sprinkled over the whole expanse of water, ferrying across the
inhabitants who resided beyond the St. Mary's river, as well as
many from the opposite shore of the Potomac. The hostel of
Master Weasel was thronged with guests, and every ale-house
and ordinary of inferior note bore testimony to the attraction
which the projected prize-play presented to the country people
both far and near.

Meantime the combatants were not yet accessible to the sight
of the inquisitive crowd. They were each in charge of their
respective friends. Stark Whittle had selected Captain Coode as
his patron, and was now longed in the house of the burgess,
where he was attended by a troop of those professional backers
who are ever at hand on occasions of sport with their advice, -
men who, whether imbued with skill or not, are still prone to take
the credit of being well versed in the mysteries of the game.

These were now busy, or affected to be so, in preparing their
champion for his encounter, exhibiting that show of science in
the minutiæ of the craft which belongs to their class. Under
their direction, the swordsman had been, for several days, put
under a diet which was alleged to be scrupulously regulated to
produce the due quantum of strength without an increase of bulk;
he had been breathed a certain number of hours each day in the
exercise of his weapon; and now that the moment of trial was at
hand, great exactness and care were displayed in anointing his
limbs with bear's grease, to give them their requisite suppleness.
The same precautions, with the same pedantry, were bestowed
upon Sergeant Travers, who, still shut up in the fort, was undergoing
the discipline of Captain Dauntrees and Arnold de la
Grange, - both of these worthies claiming to be adepts in this
important matter of training for a prize play.

About an half hour before four o'clock, the common was
filled with the groups of spectators, leaving the town almost
emptied of its inhabitants. These thronged around the booths,
or strolled across the plain, or took their places at the platform.
Nicholas Verbrack, at this moment, wheeled off his company from
the Court of Guard, and marching to the scene of the expected
fight, formed them in two ranks, immediately behind the flag-staff,
which might be said to represent the head of the lists.
From this position he detached sentinels, armed with pikes, who
were posted at intervals, in military fashion, around the platform,
at the distance of some ten paces from it, beyond which limit the
lookers-on were compelled to retire, leaving the intervening space
entirely clear. The crowd which was thus thrust back, consisted
indifferently of both sexes, - the women, as is always the case in
public shows wherever they may gain admission, forming no
inconsiderable portion of the mass, and they were now seen
elbowing their way to the front of the throng, and sustaining

their positions there, with as stout resolve as the sturdiest of
their antagonists. Carts, wagons, tumbrels, and sundry nondescript
conveyances, fabricated for the occasion and laden to their
utmost capacity with females, formed a kind of rear division
surrounding the stage. Several gentlemen, among whom was the
Proprietary, accompanied by his uncle, Philip Calvert the Chancellor,
nearly all the members of the council, Master Anthony
Warden, and others, were seen grouped together on horseback.
Albert Verheyden with Benedict Leonard had come in the train
of this party, but were now observed in various quarters of the
field, as they rode around to amuse themselves with the spectacle.
Chiseldine, the reverend Master Yeo, and some others conspicuous
in the ranks of opposition to the Proprietary and his party,
were seen frequently reining up their horses together in small
squads, and as often dispersing, as if under some occasional
suggestion against the propriety of their consorting too much
together in public. Cocklescraft, with Roche del Carmine and
three or four men in sailors' dress, - the skipper and his mate
being both armed rather beyond what was usual, - strolled about
the field, without ostensibly participating in the affairs of either
party.

The scene presented a lively and striking spectacle. The
musketeers in their green livery, drawn up beneath the pennon
that fluttered above the stage; the motley crowd of persons of
both sexes that surrounded the platform, taxing all the vigilance
of the sentinels to prevent them from pressing beyond their
allotted boundary; the scarlet hoods and glittering head-gear,
wimples, coifs, caps, and bright-colored petticoats, mingled in the
mass with the russet serge and round hat of the rustic, and with
the gayer holiday-attire of belted burghers and bluff landholders
arrayed in swords, short cloaks and plumed beavers; the troops
of spectators that moved over the field on horseback, some with

the sober steadiness of age, and others with the prankishness of
young cavaliers anxious to display their horsemanship in the
caracole, the demi-volte, the courbette, and the various other
points of equestrian skill to which the jargon of that day supplied
names; the bustle of strolling idlers that hovered about the
booths, where the twangling of a fiddle in one quarter and the
rattle of dice in another rose in a confused din upon the ear,
mingled with the oaths of drinkers and the nimble-tongued and
shrill tones of the authoritative dame of the Crow and Archer,
as she chid or promoted the clamor around her: - all these
images, grouped together on the beautiful plain of St. Mary's,
with that transparent blue heaven above, and the matchless
foliage of the Fall giving to the forest the hues of the dying
dolphin, and the mild, invigorating coolness of that incomparable
season which ushers in the gradual march of winter, diffusing
health and buoyancy into every frame, - afforded a picture which
was calculated to inspire a high sense of enjoyment in those who
witnessed it, and which would scarcely fail to produce something
of the same impression if skilfully delineated on the canvass.

At a signal from Colonel Talbot, a trumpeter bearing an
instrument, which, like himself, was decorated with ribbons,
mounted upon the stage and blew forth a sprightly summons.
When this was repeated thrice, two small parties were seen
entering on the common from different quarters. That which
came from the direction of the centre of the town, was immediately
descried as Stark Whittle and his party, consisting of
Captain Coode with three or four attendants. The champion
was wrapped in a horseman's cassock that concealed his figure
from observation, whilst beside him walked his second, a squat,
brawny, fierce little man, with a huge red nose, a squint in one
eye, a scar across his brow, and a large broad-flapped beaver
garnished with a black ostrich feather which hung backward a

span below his shoulder. This worthy enjoyed the designation
of Ensign Tick, being a decayed officer of Lord Cecil's time, and
still retaining his title, though reduced to a sparking livelihood
in a civil station. He was, like his principal, shrouded in a
cloak: in one hand he bore a pair of swords, and in the other a
small creel or basket, containing a bottle of usquebaugh and
sundry commodities used for the speedy staunching of a wound, -
furniture familiar to the backers of heroes in such circumstances
as those of his principal at the present moment. The other group
came from the quarter of the Town House, by the road that led
up from the Crow and Archer, where they had betaken themselves
to await the summons: it was composed of Travers,
attended by Captain Dauntrees, and his second, the sergeant-major
of the musketeers, bearing the name of Master Stocket, -
one or two privates of the same corps, and a cortege of bare-headed
and bare-legged boys, that stepped forth at the full compass
of their stride, to keep pace with the rapid movement of the
principals of the party.

As soon as these adverse bands came within the range of the
crowd, lanes were opened for their admission, and the two champions,
advancing to an open space before the guard of soldiers,
there threw aside their cloaks and sprang upon the stage. They
were instantly followed by their seconds, whilst a flourish of the
trumpet and a long ruffle from the drums and fifes of the
musketeers announced that the ceremonies of the fight were about
to commence.

The champions were both men of fine shape and sinew, nearly
equal in height and bulk, and both came to their engagement
with apparently composed and cheerful countenances. The only
face of wrath and fire correspondent to the valorous prowess
which had impelled this warlike meeting, was that of Ensign
Tick. He alone seemed to be duly impressed with the resentment

a belligerent should indulge in such a strife. Sergeant-Major
Stocket retained a practised calmness that was
altogether professional, and performed his duty on the stage with
exemplary gravity. The champions were dressed in military
costume; Travers in that of his corps, Whittle in the cumbrous
scarlet coat of the English uniform. Both wore the heavy
wide-legged boot, which, immediately after mounting the stage, they
exchanged for shoes. As soon as this was done, they were severally
disrobed of their coats, and thus presented for the combat in
their shirt sleeves. A fillet of red ribbon was tied around the right
arm of the challenger above the elbow, whilst one of green was
similarly adjusted on the arm of Travers. During the arranging
of these preliminaries, Dauntrees and Coode had ascended the
platform, that they might, as patrons of the parties, bear testimony
to the due observance of the established laws of the play.
When all was done, and the combatants were announced to be
ready for the encounter, Coode retired from the stage and took
a post at the end of the platform most remote from the flag-staff,
whilst Dauntrees marched with military precision to a post in
front of his company, where taking a halberd from a sergeant
who held it ready for him, he planted himself, erect and stately,
immediately at the head of his men. The seconds now advanced,
each bearing in his hand a pair of back-swords of moderate
length, and each selecting one for his principal, these were
measured in public to show - what had indeed been previously
adjusted by private regulation - that no advantage was possessed
by either side in the length of weapon, and after this ceremony
they were placed in the hands of those who were to use them.
The seconds then retired to opposite points on the platform,
whilst the champions themselves, with a praiseworthy courtesy
and some expression of good will, shook hands; after which,
with a flourish of swords and a gay alacrity of manner, they

wheeled round and took the stations allotted to them by their
seconds.

All this time the utmost silence pervaded the crowd of
spectators. Every one had pressed towards the stage at the
summons of the trumpet: the booths were deserted, or left with
but a solitary watchman: a sentinel, here and there, in the verge
of the little encampment on the skirt of the common, was the
only moving thing that was not crowded up to the scene of
conflict. The Proprietary and his friends had a post of honor assigned
to them in the rear of Dauntrees's soldiers, whence they might
minutely observe all that was going on. Chiseldine and his party
occupied a post at the opposite end of the stage, relatively the
same as that of the Proprietary; but, as no space was kept clear
for their accommodation, they were forced somewhat in the rear
of the crowd of spectators on foot, and a close observer might
have seen in their thoughtful countenances that other subjects
besides the trivial amusements of the hour occupied their minds.

The champions now took their attitudes of attack and defence
and forthwith engaged with great vigor. Blows were made and
parried with masterly address. A quick onset, the assailant
pressing his antagonist across the full length of the stage, was
returned with an assault not less prompt, and the weapons were
wielded with a dexterity and sleight that almost defied the eye
to follow the several strokes and their counter defences. Nothing
was heard but the clank of steel and the sullen stamp of the
combatants on the boards of the platform, as they gave and
received blows; but, as yet, neither party had attained advantage;
and the seconds, deeming that the first bout was played long
enough, interposed to give their principals time to breathe.

Whilst the combatants, in this interval, were refreshing
themselves under the care of their seconds, the busy murmur of
conversation amongst the crowd announced the interest which

the play inspired. Many tokens of active partisanship began to
manifest themselves, and it was obvious, from the emphasis with
which the commendations were bestowed upon the new champion
Whittle, that he was a decided favorite of, at least, one party
on the field, - a party composed exclusively of Protestants;
whilst those of the Catholic faith were no less energetic in their
advocacy of Travers. It had already grown to be a sectarian
division of feeling, founded on the well-known religious professions
of the two champions; and as the Protestants were the most
numerous on the ground, it may be affirmed that Stark Whittle
enlisted the larger share of popular admiration. John Coode
was not backward to foment the party spirit, which had thus
unfortunately begun to be developed, by such artifices as he well
knew how to practice.

"Stark battles with the Papist as old Luther battled with
the Devil," he said exultingly to a group of inland proprietors
who were casually discussing the expected issue of the fight;
"we shall see this cub of Papacy disciplined with a wholesome
Protestant purgation presently."

The din of voices was suddenly stilled by the notes of the
trumpet, announcing the renewal of the fight. The parties again
took their posts; and again the clash of swords was heard, falling
thickly upon the ear. All was suspense and silence, except that
now, as a casual advantage was gained by one or other of the
combatants, notes of applause and exhortation rose in half-stifled
tones from the friends of either side, or ejaculations of fear from
their opponents, - these proceeding most frequently from the
females. This passage, however, suddenly terminated by a stroke
from Whittle's sword, the point of which just severed the skin
upon Travers's brow. The appearance of blood was a signal to
drop their points, and thus the combatants were afforded a second
breathing spell. The wound of Sergeant Travers was no sooner

perceived than the whole party who had taken such interest in
his adversary's success, raised a shout of exultation that rent the
air. This manifestation of triumph, rousing the partisans of the
opposite champion into a tone of feeling that partook of defiance,
they returned the acclamation with no less vehemence, taking the
word from Talbot as he galloped round the confines of the crowd
- "Success to Gilbert Travers, a tried master of the Noble
Science!"

In this temper of the bystanders, the third passage was announced.
Again the combatants engaged, with more than their
former vehemence, - for, taking the hue of their respective
adherents, they were wrought up into a state of ardent hostility,
which showed itself in the acerbity and vigor of their blows.
The spectators were sensibly impelled, as the struggle waxed
fiercer, into more intense and angry maintenance of their champions,
and all other thoughts seemed now to be absorbed in the
desire of victory. Unlike the former passages, this was accompanied
with all the clamor of incensed rivalry. At no instant
were the voices of partisans lulled into silence. "Bravo, good
Stark! - Well played, Gilbert!" "Huzza, excellent! Nobly
parried, Sergeant!" - and similar expressions of encouragement,
burst forth from the lips of the excited groups, as they involuntarily
laid their hands upon their swords, and, breaking through
all constraint, passed up to the frame of the platform. In the
height of this animating impulse, Travers threw aside a blow
which had been directed with great energy at his breast, and the
vigor with which he parried it swayed the sword of his adversary
so far out of his sphere of defence, as to leave his body open to
the return stroke, which was plied with such effect as to make a
deep incision midway down Whittle's thigh and thence across the
knee, laying open the flesh, through that whole track, to the bone,
and covering the wounded man with his blood. It was observed

that Whittle's previous stroke had been thrown with such violence
as to cause him to reel from his footing when the force of
the blow was dashed aside into the air, and many were of opinion
that this slip of the foot was an accident which should have saved
him from the return cut that was made with such disabling effect.
It was instantly apparent that this hit decided the fight and gave
the victory to the Sergeant of Musketeers.

"A Roland for an Oliver!" exclaimed Talbot with wild
exultation. "Admirable, Sergeant! - well done! - you have
shorn the spur of that cock for a while, at least."

"Huzza for Travers!" resounded over the field from the
voices of the large party of his friends; whilst, on the other
side, with equal vehemence, was shouted, "Foul play! Shame,
shame! A papistical, cowardly trick!"

"I'll meet thee, for a beggarly roister," cried an incensed
partisan, who sprang upon the platform and shook his sword in
Travers's face - "I'll meet thee, Master Toasting-iron, when you
dare! - I'll give thee a lesson for striking a man below the knee."

"Push it at him now, Master Hardcastle," exclaimed a second,
following in the steps of the new challenger; "he deserves no
better than to be put on his defence where he stands - for a
filthy Roman as he is. A foul cut below the knee, and at a man
who had lost his footing! That is the upshot of his valor!"

These invaders of the platform were instantly confronted by
two or three of the opposite party who ascended the stage to
drag them off; - and, in turn, some dozens of either complexion
in the quarrel sprang to the aid of their respective friends - thus
presenting on both sides a compact body of excited opponents
fiercely bent on mischief.

Talbot was instantly off his horse, and, sword in hand, rushed
to the scene of broil, calling upon Dauntrees to advance his men
and make a clear stage. Swords were drawn in all quarters;

and the first person with whom Talbot came in conflict was John
Coode, who, with his naked weapon in his hand, was stimulating
his partisans to commence an assault. Talbot seized him by the
front of his coat, and presenting the point of his sword to his
breast, cried out - "Swiller of a tap room! by my hand, if thou
openest thy rotten throat with but a cough, I will thrust my
sword ell deep into thy worthless body. Begone, hound!"

And with this word he pushed the burgess violently over the
edge of the platform on the brink of which he stood. In a moment
the musketeers were marched by Dauntrees, in solid mass,
upon the stage, and the threatened rioters were thus expelled
from the seat of contest. Holding this position, the troops had
the command of the field, and by threatening to fire, which
Dauntrees, with the trained coolness of an old soldier, announced,
in a stentorian voice, he would certainly do if further violence
were menaced, Chiseldine, Coode, and their companions, amongst
whom was Parson Yeo, interfered to quiet the tumult and draw
off their adherents. During all this commotion, Corporal Abbot
was seen on the outer skirt of the crowd, brandishing his weapon,
and hurrying to and fro with a look which had wrath enough
in it to annihilate the whole Church of Rome, yet mixed up with
a discretion which would have left a casual spectator at a loss
to determine exactly on what side he was arrayed. "Odso!"
he ejaculated; "let me into that skirmish! I will teach them
orderly behavior, - the varlets! Shall we have brawls put upon
us? Shall we digest cold iron against our will? No, by my
belt - not whilst my name is Abbot! The fight will be this way
presently - and, I warrant you, my hand is in it."

"Put up your sword, you venturesome fool," exclaimed Verbrack,
who, in hurrying round the confines of the crowd with a
small party of the musketeers, encountered the man of war in the
height of his ire - "put up your sword - nor stand vaporing here

like a grain thrasher!" - which exhortation the Lieutenant
accompanied with a slight blow across the offender's shoulders,
laid on with the flat of his sword.

"Ha, ha! venturesome, you may find me, truly, Master
Lieutenant; but, as you say, it is a good example to put
up our weapons when headstrong men might be led off by
evil examples;" with which sage rejection the wrath of the
Corporal suddenly surceased, and his weapon was immediately
consigned to its sheath, whence it was not abstracted for full five
seconds after the Lieutenant had disappeared.

Godfrey had, at the first symptom of confusion, retired
from the field, and Cocklescraft, with his seamen, stood by
an unconcerned spectator of the whole scene - nor passed a
word with any one, except that at one moment, when stalking
around the platform, the halberd of Dauntrees accidentally,
and without the observation of the Captain, was protruded
across his path. The skipper disdaining to walk out of the
way of this impediment, drew his sword and struck it down,
saying fiercely as he did it -

"Find other service for your pike, than to stop my wandering."

"By my troth, saucy master," replied Dauntrees, "but I
will speedily find service for my pike that shall teach thee
more civil behavior. But pass on, sir, you have a license
in the port to go free of all notice except such as shall give thee
accommodation in the stocks."

Lord Baltimore, with the graver gentlemen of his suite, rode
around the scene of disorder, manifesting the utmost concern,
and exhorting all whom he might address with any hope of
persuasion, to retire quietly from the field. The old Collector,
however, was not the most docile of his adherents; for the
veteran's blood had risen to fever heat, and he repeatedly

charged the rioters, cane in hand, with strenuous reproof of
their misconduct, expressed in no very dainty terms. By
degrees the authors of these tumults began to withdraw from
the scene of action and to form themselves into detached bodies
far apart, where their rage was allowed to spend itself in
unchallenged vituperation and rebuke of their antagonists, and
finally to subside, at least, into a manageable degree of
resentment.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Nor
less upon the saddened town
The
evening sunk in sorrow down.
The
burghers spoke of civil jar,
Of
rumored feuds and mountain war.
SCOTT.

IN this state of
excitement and exasperation, the early twilight
found the greater number of the spectators of the recent show,
and crowds still lingered in detached and angry parties about the
common, even until the new moon began to shed a pale light
over the field. The council, whose suspicions of the disaffected
had, for some time past, put them on the strictest observation of
Coode and his friends, had now seen enough in the conduct of
that party to convince them that the spirit of rebellion was
sufficiently bold to manifest itself, on the first occasion, in some
decided and dangerous attempt upon the peace of the province.
They therefore determined to lose no time in the adoption of such
proceedings as should enable them to act most effectually against
the ringleaders. With this view, Colonel Darnall was directed
by the Proprietary to take measures to obtain accurate information
of the movements of Coode and his party. He accordingly
repaired to the fort to Dauntrees, who, after duly weighing the
delicate nature of the commission, determined to take the matter
in his own hand, and promised to report to the council before
midnight. This being approved by Darnall, the Captain, after
he had taken his supper, threw aside his military dress and

equipped himself in that of a burgher or private citizen of the
port; and wrapping himself in a cloak, set forward about nine
o'clock on his adventures. His first attention was given to John
Coode, and he consequently bent his steps towards the dwelling
of the burgess. The house stood retired from a street or shaded
lane, in a position somewhat remote from immediate neighbors,
whilst a thick bower of foliage threw the mass of building at
this hour of midnight into deep obscurity. The Captain approached
as near to the premises as he might do with safety,
and, under the shelter of shrubberry, found
himself in a
post
where he might observe, without much risk of detection, at least
such persons as approached or left the house. He had no difficulty
very soon to convince himself that the dwelling was crowded
with visitors. This was manifest not only from the figures that
were seen passing and repassing the few dim lights that flickered
from the casements, but from the constant ingress and egress of
persons by the outer gate, the path to which lay immediately
past the Captain's place of concealment. Many of the passers he
could observe to be persons from the inland settlements. After a
brief lapse of time came Parson Yeo, moving from the house to
the gate, and, at intervals, following him, Kenelm Chiseldine,
Godfrey, and several individuals known to be prominent in
promoting the late quarrel between the Burgesses and the
Proprietary. The few words that dropped from the visitors of the
dwelling-house, as they moved within the range of the Captain's
hearing, related to the Fendalls, and he more than once heard
Lieutenant Godfrey's name connected with them, in a manner
that it greatly puzzled him to comprehend; for, as yet, Godfrey
had altogether escaped the suspicion of the Proprietary's friends.
When these had gone by, the redoubtable Corporal Abbot was
the next that traversed the pathway. He was alone, and coming
from within the house, walked with a brisk pace through the

gate, after which he turned into the street in a direction opposite
to that which the greater number of those who preceded him had
taken. The Captain now boldly left his hiding-place, and, with a
free step, followed the lonely professor of war and the "gentle
craft," and upon overtaking him, was enabled to discern that the
troubles of the day had led to some excess in the little martialist's
potations, by which his walk was rendered slightly unsteady.
The Captain, confiding in his disguise, and the probable bewilderment
of the tailor's brain, accosted him boldly as a fellow-conspirator.

"Zounds, neighbor! you are in haste to get under cover
to-night. I have striven like a goaded horse to come up to you,
all the way from the door of Master Coode's. Wherefore so
fast?"

"It isn't wise to be seen so near Master Coode's. The
Proprietary hath already an evil eye upon him, and notes his
associates."

"Truly, then, it is discreet to make speed away from the
dwelling - though it be, after all, but a sneaking thing to fear
the Proprietary. We are enough to master his bullies, to my
thinking."

"Enough! troth are we. There is Lieutenant Godfrey, as
you might have heard him say, has sixty men - a score of them
to come across the Potomac - ready to ride into the town any
night he may wink his eye; besides the friends we have in
swarms as thick as pigeon-flights 'twixt this and Christina.
Enough, truly! - enough and to spare, Master - Your pardon,
I have forgot your name?"

"Whitebread," replied Dauntrees.

"Oh, surely! How addled is my pate! Master Whitebread,
we shall do it," said the Corporal, with an utterance that
might just be discerned to trip a little on the tongue, for his

excesses had not so much disturbed as quickened his speech, and
left him more communicative than in his present circumstances
was altogether safe. "We shall do it, Master Whitebread, on the
night of the fifth of November, as the reverend Master Yeo has
appointed."

"Guy Fawkes's night," said Dauntrees. "But the Fendalls -"

"The Lord love you, Master Wheatbread! thou couldst not
have rightly apprehended Captain Coode. Lieutenant Godfrey
is to bring his troopers - I am one of them, and counted on: I
wear his Lordship's colors and take his pay, though I be not of
his cause, mark you - Lieutenant Godfrey is to fetch his minutemen
on Wednesday come next sennight, and make an onslaught
upon the prison. We begin with that."

"Ay, so I take it, valiant Master Corporal. Captain Coode
so laid it down."

"Faith did he; and he looks to see it done to the last scruple,
which, I promise you, it shall be, if there be virtue in steel."

"But he did not explain how these friends from Virginia
should reach our shore."

"Thou wert asleep, Master Sweetbread: thou wert dull.
Did you not know that Cocklescraft has quarrelled with the
Proprietary, and brings us his brigantine? Truly, does he! When
knaves fall out, honest men come by their own, ha, ha! By cock
and pye, - but that's a true word!"

"Now, good night, brave Corporal," said Dauntrees, as soon
as he came to a convenient point to free himself of the company
of the flustered and leaky hatcher of treasons. "Good night,
and mayst thou be soon rewarded for thy deserts."

"Good night, Master Sweetbread - and thank you heartily
for your kind wishes - I warrant you I get my deserts. But
remember," the tailor added, laying his hand upon his lips;
'mute as a mattock - not a breath!" Having given this parting

admonition, he pursued his way with a confident carriage; and
very soon after they Dauntrees heard his voice lifted up
into a song.

"Well," said the Captain, when he was left alone; "for the
sneaking trade of an eaves-dropper, I have a most apt and
commendable talent. In this, my first traffic in so noble and
praiseworthy an employment, have I succeeded to a marvel. Scarce an
hour since my fertile genius struck out this point of war, and here
have I unravelled a whole web of treason, that shall go nigh to
hanging up these curs by the score. All's fair in war, they say:
- but, by my faith, I had rather have won my knowledge by some
little show of buckler-work, even if it were but a show. It would
have been more soldierly. Yet, as bluff Harry's leather gun in
the Tower has it, - 'Non marte opus est cui non deficit Mercurius.'
We win by art when steel may not be struck."

The Captain now took a road that led back towards the common,
where he carefully reconnoitered the whole ground. Some
few persons yet loitered in the vicinity of the booths, and two or
three small bands of men, muffled in cloaks, were soon in close
conference amongst the cedars that formed a thicket near the
Town House. From this point, looking across the narrow bottom
of low and marshy ground which lay between the town and
the homestead of Chiseldine, which was in full view wherever an
opening between the trees gave a range to the eye, he could
discover that the dwelling-house was more than usually lighted, and
that visitors were, at this late hour, thronging the apartments.

Whilst he was busy with these observations, Lieutenant
Godfrey and Cocklescraft emerged from the cedars, in earnest
discourse, and slowly followed the path which led down the bank
to Master Weasel's inn. Without giving himself the trouble to
listen, he could not help hearing the short colloquy which passed
between them before they entered the hostel.

"What would you have with a horse at this hour of the
night?" inquired the Lieutenant.

"It is but a freak," replied the skipper. "By St. Iago,
Lieutenant, I will deal roundly with him. In honor, I will
admonish him beforehand. He shall have warning, on my
conscience - warning that it shall make him pale to read."

"I will not baulk your devilment, Dick Cocklescraft: So,
you shall have the steed. When will you return?"

"By as early a moment after midnight as I may ride the
space with all the speed your beast may afford."

"Ha, ha! a sailor o' horseback and the devil rides at his
crupper! Ho, Filch, there - ostler Filch! Hither, man: see
that an hour hence, when Master Cocklescraft has finished his
supper, you saddle my nag and fetch him - where, Master
Skipper?"

"To the Town House steps," said his companion.

"To the Town House steps - do you hear?"

Dauntrees having now gathered all the information which his
good fortune through his night's adventure had thrown in his
way, betook himself to the Proprietary mansion. Here he found
Lord Baltimore, Talbot, Darnall, and others, awaiting his arrival.
He narrated circumstantially the strange and ample details
connected with the plots in concoction and their contrivers, as
he had learned them; and laid a tissue of facts before the council
which left no room for hesitation as to the judgment to be
formed of the shape and pressure of the rebellion. Having thus
executed the commission confided to him, he retired to his quarters.

On the following morning, soon after the town was emptied
of the press of visitors who had crowded in to the prize
play, the
greater portion of whom had taken their departure at an early
hour, it is sufficient for me only to inform my reader that John

Coode, Lieutenant Godfrey, and Corporal Abbot, with a half
score of others less distinguished in this history, were snugly
ensconced in jail, sharing the apartment of the persecuted patriots
Josias and Samuel Fendall. How they came into this stronghold,
and what consternation this decisive act of vigorous administration
spread through the town; who advised the measure and
who executed it; I leave to the conjecture of the imaginative
friend who has accompanied me through the dry narrative of
these pages.

For the present, neither Kenelm Chiseldine nor the reverend
Parson Yeo were molested, though it may be conceived that
they did not pass free of that close observation of their outgoings
and incomings with which, in all countries, suspected persons are
wont to be favored by the guardians of the authority of government.

CHAPTER XXV.

The
baffled factions in their houses skulk.
JOHN
WOODVIL.

WHEN day broke upon the
drowsy burghers of St. Mary's, on
the morning after the prize play, the Olive
Branch was
no longer
to be seen in the river. Such a sudden departure of so important
a portion of the commercial marine of the port, produced no
small degree of speculation amongst the waking citizens as, by
degrees, after sunrise, they began to rub their eyes and look
abroad. This speculation became still more intense when, in a
few hours, they saw files of soldiers passing through the town,
and heard, immediately afterwards, the rancor of the arrest of
Coode and his compatriots. Still more was it excited by a
report which was early brought to town from the Rose Croft,
that the broad arrow - the mysterious presignification of
mischief, a mark by which a suspected person was proscribed, or a
devoted one forewarned - had been found deeply scratched, as
with the point of a dagger, on the Collector's door. An unusual
stir and buzz of murmured wonder prevailed through the
little city, and every body was on foot to learn the cause of these
phenomena. By some it was said that the skipper had gone on
a trading excursion up the bay to Kent Island, as it was his
custom to do. Those in the secret of the last night's conspiracy
had no difficulty in ascribing his departure to movements

connected with the plot; the broad arrow on the Collector's door
was easily accounted for by such as were aware of Cocklescraft's
midnight ride on Godfrey's horse; and, on all sides, expectation
was raised into silent dread of some eruption that was to break
forth, in a moment when none might be aware of it, and from a
quarter to which few might look.

The council was convened at the Proprietary mansion, and
there the emergency was gravely debated and the most energetic
measures of precaution and defence adopted. The escape of
Cocklescraft connected with his recent quarrel with the Secretary,
and the disclosure made by Abbot of his concurrence in
the plot of the conspirators, left no doubt of his treachery. The
outbreak was rendered more formidable by its coincidence in
point of time with the contemplated incursion of the Northern
Indians, as related by the travelling doctor - a circumstance that
seemed to infer correspondence between the leaders of the
conspiracy and the savages, and to give the plot a consistency well
calculated to excite alarm. To these topics of apprehension, on
the part of the council, was added a certain undefined and anxious
misgiving that the goblin stories of the Wizard's Chapel, as reported
by Dauntrees and Arnold de la Grange, and now repeated
by the Proprietary with all the testimony he had obtained to
support them, might have some connection with this long-hatched
rebellion, and that there were secret ramifications of the plot
that had never yet been suspected. The participation of Godfrey
and Cocklescraft in the designs of Coode, of which none of
the Proprietary's friends had entertained a surmise until the
previous night, was a fact adapted to confirm their fears of the
wide diffusion of disaffection where it had not been looked for.
The result of this deliberation was a resolve to pursue matters to
a speedy conclusion by a decisive and bold action. The ringleaders
were to be brought instantly to trial; the military force

was to be increased; their ranks purged of all who were
suspected to want heartiness in the cause; and every precaution
was to be taken to provide against assault from all quarters, by
night or day. Captain Dauntrees was commanded to look to
the safety of the town, and to endeavor to ascertain what had
become of Cocklescraft.

In this state of preparation and suspense, twenty-four hours
past
over without tidings of the skipper, or any new
developments
of the designs of the conspirators. The vigorous measures taken
by the Proprietary seemed to have struck terror into his adversaries,
and at least driven them into the shelter of silence and
concealment. At the end of this period Willy of the Flats, -
who was one of those expert politicians who make it a point to
manifest their patriotism by the most eager zeal in favor of the
side that is uppermost, - having until the overthrow of Coode been
strongly inclined to take part with the agitators, now made his
way, about ten o'clock at night, into the fort, and thence to the
presence of Captain Dauntrees. Approaching the Captain, with
an air of constrained self-importance, he said in a half whisper -

"News, Master Captain - grave news, worshipful sir, - state
matters! I have come post-haste to tell you, that twenty
minutes ago - no, that I may not lie, I will say twenty-five
minutes ago - just so long as with good speed - a dog trot we
will say - it might suffice for me to come hither from Master
Weasel's tap-room - who think you I saw, and what did he do?"

"Speak, Willy, without this windy prologue."

"There comes in Master Cocklescraft, and straight orders a
noggin of brandy, - whereof guzzling it down with a most
treasonable haste, he wiped his lips, and asked for Lieutenant
Godfrey; and when he heard that the Lieutenant was in prison, he
bit his lip and gave a kind of ha! or I might say grunt, and
walked very suspiciously away."

"Follow him, Captain, I did, as far as the cedars of the Town
House where - the moon being down - I lost him. He might
have been on his way to the jail, but I stayed not to seek that
out, for turning round, - now, said I, Willy, make for the fort as
fast as you can, and tell the Captain the whole matter."

"Thanks, at least, for that diligence of yours. You shall
have your supper and a stoop of liquor for this."

"Blessings on your worship, for thinking of the need of an
empty man!" said Willy, as with his hat tucked under his arm
he went towards the Captain's kitchen to acquaint Matchcote
with his master's hint touching the refreshment.

Dauntrees lost no time in despatching an inferior officer, with
two or three files, in quest of the skipper. These returned after
midnight with a tale confirming Willy's narrative; but with the
further intelligence that no traces could be obtained of Cocklescraft
beyond his appearance at the Crow and Archer.

The next day the Superior of the Jesuit House of St. Inigoe's
visited the Proprietary to inform him that, at the dawn,
the servants of his establishment had found their skiff hauled up
on the beach, some fifty or a hundred yards remote from the
wharf where, on the preceding night, it had been carefully locked
by a chain, which, it appeared, had been broken, showing that
the boat had been used by some person of whom no knowledge
could yet be obtained. He further stated that Fluke, the fisherman,
who lived some distance below St. Inigoe's, on the river
bank, had that morning reported, that before daylight his dogs
had waked him with loud barking, and that he had heard the
footsteps of a man upon the beach: that the fisherman had challenged
the stranger from his window, but had got no reply, and
was fain to let him pass on without molestation, owing to the
darkness of the hour.

This intelligence, combined with that brought to the fort by
the fiddler, strongly pointed to the visit and retreat of the skipper,
and seemed to indicate that he was lurking somewhere near
the mouth of the river, and had, in the night, crossed St. Inigoe's
creek immediately from the wharf of the Jesuit House to that of
the Rose Croft, by which road he had visited the town and
returned again before daylight.

Dauntrees, upon receiving this information, lost no time in
visiting the House of St. Inigoe's, to inquire into the particulars;
after which he went to see the fisherman. The result of this
journey was to confirm him in the impression of the secret
correspondence of the skipper with the town, and to engage Fluke in
the service of watching the future motions of the same visitant.

Simon Fluke lived some two or three miles below St. Inigoe's,
near the mouth of the river, where a small cabin gave shelter
to his wife and a troop of children - an amphibious brood of
urchins who seemed to be at home either on land or water, and
whose rude habits of life had inured them to the scant accommodation
and precarious protection of the hut into which they were
all huddled. This man earned a hard livelihood by supplying his
neighbors of St. Inigoe's and the townspeople with fish; and it
was greatly to his content that he now found himself engaged in
the service of the Proprietary, with the promise of a handsome
reward if his good fortune should enable him to aid effectually
in securing the person of the skipper.

It was a few days after his employment in this service, that
the sun was seen to set amongst thickly scudding clouds and
blasts of wind, such as, with the near approach of November,
are apt suddenly to break in upon the serene autumn, giving rude
foretastes of winter. The horizon was dark, and the overmastered
sun hopelessly struggled to fling a parting beam upon the ruffled
waters.

The fisherman had hauled his boat upon the sand, bestowed
his nets and other tackle in safety for the night, and taken his
seat at his fireside, with a lighted pipe, where he challenged the
besmirched, white-haired boy that toddled across the room - the
youngest of his troop - to a game of romps, or more demurely
chatted of household cares with his meagre and sad-visaged
dame. The door of his hut standing wide open and looking
southwardly, showed him the Potomac, even across to that
remote cape called by the early settlers after St. Gregory, but
now known as Smith's Point.

"Look out, wife," said the fisherman, as he cast his eye over
this extensive sheet of water, yet illumined with the light of
parting day, "and you shall see a strange craft beating up from
the Virginia shore; she is almost too light a skiff for such a sea
as that now running in. Have you seen it go down the river?
Where can it belong?"

"It is a new sight to me," replied the wife; "I saw nothing
like it go down from St. Mary's to-day."

"He does not shape his course, either, up the river, so much
as he makes for this shore," added the fisherman. "He comes
from some harbor on the other side, short of St. Gregory. His
business must drive him hard, to bring him out at this hour, in
the teeth of such a wind. I will keep an eye on that fellow,
wife; there is enough in his venturing to raise a suspicion."

The homely supplier of the family, soon after this, called off
the fisherman from his watch, which indeed the thickening shades
of night soon rendered useless, and the only vigilance which the
master of the hut could now exercise was shown in an occasional
walk to the beach, in the hope that the nearer approach of the
boat might inform him with more certainty whether her course
lay towards the town. Nothing however was gained by these
visits; no boat came in view, and the gloom forbade further

observation. The craft was some seven or eight miles, at
least, from shore when she was last seen, and the fisherman,
giving up all hope of learning more that night, threw his weary
frame upon his tattered couch and sunk shortly into a profound
sleep.

During the night a growl of the house-dog, and the tread of
a foot upon the gravel, woke the uneasy-slumbering dame, but
the sound had died away amidst the plash of waves upon the
strand, before she could rouse the heavy and torpid frame of her
snoring lord. When at last he woke, it was only to utter a
drowsy and bewildered reproof for the annoyance he had suffered,
and to fall back again into his former deep unconsciousness. At
early dawn, however, he was abroad, breathing the sharp, cold
breeze of the clear morning. Below his hut, seaward, he could
descry upon the beach, some miles short of Point Look
Out, the
small craft which, on the previous evening, he had noted standing
across the river. It was a suspicious sight to see a boat at
such a time in such a place; and connecting it with the circumstances
his wife had remarked in the night, Fluke found reason
enough to put himself on the watch for the person who controlled
its motions. He accordingly went into his hut, and sticking
under his girdle a horseman's pistol which he kept for domestic
defence, and taking a stout white-oak staff in his hand, he
trudged forth along the margin of the river, resolved to plant
himself in some advantageous position, whence he might intercept
any one who should approach the boat by land. He had
not left his door above half an hour, before his wife observed a
traveller, in a seaman's dress partially concealed by a gray cloak,
striding on foot along the field contiguous to the beach, in the
same direction that her husband had just taken. The mastiff
of the household was the first to challenge the stranger, by
springing almost to his heel, - a trespass that was instantly

resented by a sturdy blow from a walking stick that sent the dog
yelping back to the hut.

"St. Iago! I will kill the dog!" exclaimed the wayfarer.
"Woman," he added, as soon as he became aware that the dame
had her eye upon him, "why do you not chain up the beast?
By my hand! I will make short work with him if he interrupt
me again." And without waiting to hear the dame's half-chiding,
half-encouraging address to the dog - "Get thee in, for a saucy,
old, honest snarler!" or her defence of him: "He will not hurt
you, sir; his growl is worse than his bite," - he strode so rapidly
onward as soon to be out of view.

In less than an hour after sunrise, the little chaloupe was seen
laying her course gallantly before the wind, with her tiny sail filled
almost to bursting, as she bore for the opposite side of the Potomac.
The dame busied herself in preparing her morning meal, to
be in readiness for her husband's return, and in checking the
impatient petitions of her urchin brood, who hung around to beg
for a morsel of fish from the pan, or a slice of corn bread, to stay
their fresh appetites, until the coming of the father should be a
signal for a more orderly assault. Ever and anon, she went to
the door to cast an eye along the river bank, and to watch the
little craft, the subject of so much curiosity, as it measured its
rapid transit towards the Virginia shore.

"Simon Fluke, I believe in the heart of me," she said, after
having gone a dozen times to the door, "thinks no more of his
breakfast than if it were wet sea-weed just out of the river: the
fish, with one turn more, will not be fit for a Christian to eat; -
and here are these children ready to munch their own fingers for
food. I wish to the saints, the man could learn some thought of
his meals when they are ready for him! But I might as well
talk to a flounder as to Simon Fluke."

CHAPTER XXVI.

It
creeps, the swarthy funeral train,
The
corse is on the bier.

LEONORA.

THE distant bell of St.
Inigoe's was heard summoning the priests
of the house to the chapel service of the Vigil of All Souls, - the
season had now advanced as far as high noon on the last day of
October, - when the quay in front of the Crow and Archer was
enlivened by the gossipping
faces of a group of
quidnuncs who
had assembled there in the warm sunshine, to discuss a most
melancholy piece of intelligence which had just come to town,
and which was debated with that characteristic respect for truth
and decent spirit of condolence with which horrible accidents and
distressing casualties are generally propagated.

"There's proclamation of hue and cry out," said Willy of the
Flats, speaking as one who had obtained possession of a state
secret - "I heard it myself, but now, at the mansion, from Master
Llewellen, who was sent for, on purpose, by his Lordship, to
make proclamation by hue and cry as fast as it can be writ down."

"Good reason!" replied Mug the Sexton; "I'll warrant you
Tiquassino's men have slipped across the bay, with Jackanapes
or Robin Hood at their lead, to whet their knives on Christian
flesh, and if they are to be caught, we must do it quick, I can
tell you, neighbors. Will the body be brought to town?"

Weasel, with the air of a man who felt himself entitled to
instruct the company in matters of law. "No one durst touch
the body till the coroner has dealt with it. Giles Ferret must
have a fancy to summon me on his jury! but I foiled him on
privilege, d'ye see, masters, - for the Sheriff hath set me down on
the panel for the provincial court next week; - so no two juries
for me, Master Coroner, says I. Lord, Lord! I could no more
face Simon Fluke's family, - to say nothing of the dead man
himself, - in their distress, than I could look upon my own dame in
her winding-sheet."

"Troth! you shall never look at me in that dress," exclaimed
the laughing landlady, who stood on the skirt of the crowd,
hitherto unseen by her husband. "I have pranked out two
as pretty men in woollen
as yourself, Garret Weasel,
before I
had the good luck to clap eyes on you; and, faith, I mean to
put you to bed with the shovel, ere I go myself. What are the
townsfolk good for, that they are not up and abroad to find out
the villains who murdered the fisherman?"

"They talk of a following with hot hand," said Derrick
Brown, in reply to the question of the hostess, "as soon as
the Coroner comes back. The Indians are lurking somewhere
upon the border of the settlements; take my word it will be
proved so."

"If we were sure of that," said Garret Weasel, "I should be
for boot and spur, harquebuss and hanger, up and away, lads; -
but we must move with caution in the matter till we get lawful
ground for an outriding. Give us the hue and cry before we
start."

"Some do say," interposed Master Clink, a mender of kettles,
who had left his work so hastily that he had not thrown aside
his leather apron, "that the murder was done by Papists in the
disguise of Indians."

"I'll warrant you as many lies will be pinned upon the back
of this murder as it will hold," said a tall, sallow, spare-built man,
who was known as the head constable of the riding of St.
George's. "It is the fashion now, when a piece of mischief has
been practised, for one side or the other to turn it into a church
matter. Every body knows that Simon Fluke was as good a
Roman as there was in the riding. Why do you prate about
the Papists, Tom Clink? Who told you that monstrous lie?"

"By the faith of my body! I did hear it whispered," replied
the tinker; "though, as I am an honest man, I did not
believe it."

Whilst this little knot of newsmongers continued upon the
quay, discussing the rumors of the day, and now and then
enlivening their drooping spirits with a resort to the red lattice
of the Crow and Archer, behind which Matty Scamper and
Dame Dorothy by turns administered the refreshment of a cup
of ale or some stronger potation, two boats were discovered
approaching the harbor from a point below St. Inigoe's, and making
as much speed as their complement of oars would allow. As they
neared the quay, it became apparent that the first contained a
coffin attended by the fisherman's family, and two priests; the
second was freighted with the jury under the charge of Master
Giles Ferret, the Coroner.

Whilst the boats are approaching, we recur to our narrative
where we left it at the conclusion of the last chapter; deeming
it necessary to say that the anxious wife, after venting some
unavailing and affectionate expressions of impatience at her
husband's delay in returning to his breakfast, sat down to her meal,
unconscious of the cause that detained her mate and ascribing
his absence to that carelessness of hours which grew out of the
nature of his calling. Noon came, and the frugal board was
again spread for dinner, but to it came no father of the wondering

household; - still the vacant seat was not so unusual a
spectacle as to excite alarm. But when the sun began to dip
upon the verge of the western horizon, and no trace could be
discerned of the homeward step of the fisherman, fears arose in
the bosom of his wife, - and long and earnestly she paced the
beach and strained her sight to catch his expected form. At
length, heading her little household troop, she sallied forth, with
hurried steps, along the sands, for more than a mile; and finding
no vestige of him, returned sorrowfully to her humble roof and
gave up the night to that sharpest of all the trials by which grief
may assail the human breast, - the half-hoping, half-fearing, silent,
doubting watchfulness for the approach of evil tidings, which the
heart, by a strange presentiment, sometimes truly foretells.

At daylight her eldest boy was despatched to the house of
St. Inigoe's for aid, and very soon some four or five persons were
on foot to scour the country in quest of the lost man. A short
search disclosed the dreadful truth: the body was found in a
thicket of cedar, with the marks of a bullet through the brain;
the spot within a hundred paces of the shore of a small inlet (at
this day known as Smith's creek) that flowed from the Potomac
a few miles westward of Point Lookout. There were the footprints
of men upon the beach, and marks of the keel of a boat
which had been drawn up on the sand. The wretched wife could
only tell of her husband's departure in the morning: - all other
recollections, in the depth of her sorrow, were swept from her
mind; and the persons who were busy in seeking out the facts
of the murder were obliged to leave the spot with trothing better
than vague conjectures as to the agency by which it was perpetrated.

The tidings were quickly brought to the town, and the
Coroner instantly proceeded with a jury to the spot to perform
the duties required by the law. His office was soon discharged,

and, as we have seen, he was now, early in the afternoon, on his
return with the body of the deceased, attended by the wailing
family and the jury who had pronounced their verdict of
'intentional homicide by persons unknown.'

In the excited state of parties, at this crisis, the Proprietary
did not choose to risk a popular tumult. Already, as was usual
at that day, regardless of any ascertained fact relating to the
murder, common opinion ascribed it to the Indians: whilst the
more violent of the factionists noised it abroad as a contrivance
of the Catholic party to overawe their adversaries, - directly
charging the murder upon the friends of the Proprietary, who, it
was alleged, had accomplished it in the garb of Indians. The
animosity with which this improbable and, in this case, absurd
report (for the deceased was known by many to be of the same
faith with his imputed murderers) was propagated, induced, in
the mind of Lord Baltimore, an apprehension of some disturbance,
and he had accordingly directed Captain Dauntrees to
keep his force in readiness to suppress any attempt at disorder
which might arise. The boats, therefore, were no sooner discovered
approaching the quay, than the garrison of the fort were
drawn out by their Captain and marched to the foot of the
mulberry at the Town House, where they awaited the funeral
procession, which it was designed they should accompany to the
grave.

Curiosity, that eager impulse to feast on popular horrors, had
brought a considerable crowd of the townspeople to the landing
place; community of faith with the deceased had brought many,
and the angry and disturbed temper of the times still more. The
whole together formed a mass of persons actuated by various
passions. The idle stare of that vacant portion of the spectators
who came merely to gape at the spectacle, was contrasted with
the serene thoughtfulness of those who made it their duty, from

religious affinity with the deceased, to attend the remains to the
tomb; and still more did it strike the beholder, when it was
compared with the stern hatred and ill-concealed scorn of that
class of lookers-on who, belonging to the lately baffled party of
the disaffected, stood by with scowling brows, whispering
contemptuous sneers against their opponents, as these latter busied
themselves in ordering the hasty procession which was formed
from the quay up the bank towards the Town House.

The two priests who attended the body, clad in their robes,
took the lead of the funeral train. The body, borne by four stout
men, comrades of the deceased, followed; and immediately behind
it tottered along with uncertain step, the fisherman's wife, in
rude and neglected attire, sobbing convulsively - her apron thrown
over her head, and her walk guided by a friendly matron whose
frequent but abortive efforts at consolation seemed only to
produce fresh bursts of sorrow. After these came the unconscious
children, dressed in their homely holiday suits, looking around
them with faces of constrained seriousness, which scarcely
repressed the broad expression of the gratified interest they took
in the novel scene around thorn. Many of the townspeople of
both sexes formed in the procession, which was brought up in the
rear by the company of musketeers, who wheeled into the line of
march, as the last of the marshalled followers of the body passed
from beneath the shade of the mulberry. The bell of the Chapel
of St. Mary's tolled whilst the train moved, at a measured pace,
towards the church door, where, being met by Father Pierre, the
corpse was deposited in the aisle; and the good priest, with such
despatch as might comport with the solemnity of his duty, performed
the appointed service of the dead, in the presence of the
large body of spectators who had pressed into the building.

Whilst the crowd was still engaged as witnesses of this scene,
a rumor was whispered around that the proclamation of hue and

cry had just been put forth by the council. A messenger came
for Captain Dauntrees, who was observed, immediately afterward,
silently to steal forth from the church, and to take his way
with hasty strides towards the Proprietary mansion. By degrees,
one after another, the spectators followed, and were soon
discovered in groups scattered about the town; until, at last, the
corpse was left with but few more attendants than were necessary
to perform the proper duties of sepulture.

Half an hour had scarcely elapsed before mounted men were
seen gallopping
through the avenues of the little city.
The
silence which attended the funeral procession was exchanged for
busy and clamorous conversation; the bell had ceased to toll,
and in its place the notes of a trumpet were successively heard at
several points, as a horseman paced from place to place, and read
the proclamation calling on the burghers to follow with hue and
cry the perpetrators of the vile murder of honest Simon Fluke.
In process of time, this bustle subsided into a more orderly and
quiet gossip; the trumpeter had spent his last breath in braying
forth the official summons to pursue the murderer, and had gladly
put away his noisy instrument; the riders had ceased to throw up
the dust of the highways; the inquisitive dames of the town and
its marvelling maidens had no more news to seek in the open air,
and had withdrawn beneath the shelter of their respective roofs:
- the churchyard was deserted by all but the sexton and his
comrade of the spade, who now were smoothing the sides of the
new-made grave; and the tap-room of the Crow and Archer was
once more enlivened by the pot-and-pipe companions who were
wont to render its evening atmosphere murky and political. In
short, the murder of Simon Fluke, had, in the marvellous brief
period of a few hours, ceased to be the engrossing wonder of the
day, and the city of St. Mary's was partially restored to its usual
routine of ale-drinking and news-telling; - making proper allowance

for the fact, that about a dozen men had ridden forth to
scour the country in quest of the murderers, who, on their part,
had only been allowed a day and a half to make their escape, and
that the good people who staid
at home were holding
themselves
in readiness to be as much excited as ever with any tidings that
might arrive tending towards the probable ascertainment of the
perpetrators of the crime.

CHAPTER XXVII.
WHILST the burial of the fisherman, and the topics to which it
gave rise, engrossed the attention of young and old in the town,
Albert Verheyden, dressed in a riding suit with a winter surcoat
or horseman's cassock loosely thrown around his person, made his
appearance on horseback at the Rose Croft. He had engaged to
ride towards the Chesapeake with Colonel Talbot and a troop of
followers, to explore the country as far down as Point Lookout,
where rumor had already affirmed certain Indians of suspicious
bearing to have recently landed from the opposite shore of the
Chesapeake. Talbot himself had projected this expedition mainly
with a view to sift out and expose the calumny which imputed the
recent murder to the friends of the Proprietary; and he was the
more whetted in his purpose by a secret expectation that a
vigorous endeavor would enable him not only to refute the
slander, but to furnish evidence of the agency of the opposite
party in the perpretration
of the crime. It is one of
the base arts
of unprincipled politicians, he argued, ever to be among the first
in charging upon the innocent the wicked devices by which they
accomplish their own designs. He had resolved, therefore, to
take the matter in hand himself, and, at the head of a party of
the townspeople, ransack the country around the scene of the
murder, for every item of proof which might bring to light its
authors. There was, in addition to this motive, an undefined and
misty connection in his mind, of the murder with the stories told
Page 338

of the goblins of the haunted Chapel, - a conviction of some
wicked influence - active, he did not exactly know how, in
stimulating the crime. He was no disbeliever in sorcery and
witchcraft, and a vague thought hovered over his meditation that the
fisherman's death might be traced to persons holding relations
with the spirits of the Chapel. He set forth, therefore, on his
adventure with a presentiment that some startling disclosure
would soon be made, which should still more awaken the
thoughts of the government to the mischievous character of the
beings who infested the region bordering on the bay.

His purpose being made known in the family of the Proprietary,
it was with a modest yet eager petition that Albert Verheyden
asked leave to accompany him on the expedition, - a
request which was granted with even more alacrity than that
with which it was made. The hour appointed for setting out was
delayed only until a sufficient party should be collected; and this
was retarded by the ceremony of the funeral and the common
anxiety to await the tidings expected by the coroner and his
attendants. In the mean time, the Secretary, feeling more concern
in the affairs at the Rose Croft than in the gossip of the
town, repaired thither to await the moment of departure, having
commissioned the young Benedict Leonard to ride as far as the
Collector's and give him warning when the troop should take
the road - a service which the heir apparent promised to perform
with the greater satisfaction, as it assigned him some
show of duty in the general engrossment of the household, and
therefore conferred upon him an importance interesting to his
vanity.

The Secretary had been seated for some time in the parlor
with Blanche, where he related to her the story of the fisherman's
murder; and when he told her of his purposed adventure, it was
with a prouder tone than he had ever assumed before; there was

even perceptible in it a trace of self-exaltation altogether unusual
in his speech. He was now a bolder and more assured man, and
his character began to assume a more confident development.
Blanche listened with maidenly reserve, as if she was almost
ashamed to confess the interest she took in Master Albert's
communication. She was solicitous for his health and comfort in the
dreary ride through the woods he was about to undertake, and
which might be prolonged until late at night; and she was fain
almost to advise him against such an exposure - but she feared
to tell him so much, lest it might be thought taking too great a
freedom. Thus engrossed, the hours flew by unheeded, and, in
truth, forgotten, until the afternoon had reached nearly four
o'clock, when suddenly Benedict Leonard, without announcement
or even premonitory rap at the door, entered the parlor.

"Goodness, Master Albert!" he exclaimed, "think of me -
such a crack-noddle! You will never trust me again, I may
make sure of that. Would you believe it, I rode full two miles
past the Rose Croft here, with my uncle Talbot and John Alward,
and all the people on their way to hunt the murderers, without
so much as ever once thinking of you? I said, when we started,
I would ride as far as St. Inigoe's mill, and then come back;
and I as clear forgot you till I stopped at the mill, as if there
was no such person as you or Blanche Warden in the wide
world: and I might have thought of Mistress Blanche, too,
because my Aunt Maria gave me a message for her - now what
is it? Oh, it is gone, - it is gone! a plague on it! that's got
out of my head too. No matter, Master Albert, my uncle
Talbot told me to say, when we parted, that he would be on the
path which leads down to Point Lookout, and that you must
follow as fast as you can."

"It is late in the evening for so long a ride, Master Albert,"
said Blanche, as with a look of alarm she involuntarily laid her

hand upon his shoulder; "you will not venture alone so near
nightfall?"

"I should be accounted a most faithless laggard, if I stayed
behind now," replied the Secretary. "There is a broad road for
some four miles, and I will go at speed till I overtake the riders.
At the greatest mischance," he added, smiling, whilst he buttoned
his overcoat closely across his breast, " 'tis but a night in the
woods. I will keep this vigil of Hallow Mass like a hermit -
or rather like a squire of chivalry undergoing the ordinance of
knighthood, by watching over his sword. The saints be with
you, mistress! I must set good store by the day-light and turn
it to account: farewell, till we meet again!"

"Farewell!" faintly echoed the maiden; "Master Albert,
let us see you to-morrow."

"If I was Master Albert," said Benedict Leonard to Blanche,
when the Secretary left the room, "I would court favor with
Mistress Coldcale to get a slice of something from the larder -
oh, this riding gives an appetite, I warrant you, that a man will
eat his sleeve for want of better provender! There, Master
Albert is gone," added the youth, as the Secretary was seen to
pass the window, "and I must back to the mansion before sunset;
my mother will be making me a pretty discourse about
rheums and catarrhs and all her other ailments, if I be caught
abroad after candle light this time o' year - especially, too, as it
looks like rain: so, good even, Mistress Blanche!" and with this
speech the heir apparent took his leave, abandoning the maiden
to her meditations.

When Albert Verheyden turned out upon the high road he
put spurs to his horse and raised his speed to a gallop, until he
found himself immersed in the hills and ravines which lay about
the head of St. Inigoe's. One or two wayfarers whom he had
chanced to meet, had answered his inquiry after his companions,

by informing him that a troop of townspeople, consisting of some
eight or ten, had passed along the road at a pretty brisk motion,
not less than three or four miles ahead of him. The broken country
into which he had plunged, (the road winding through narrow
dells and surmounting short and steep acclivities,) the thickets
that tangled his path, and the occasional swamps of the low
grounds, forced him to slacken his pace and proceed with greater
caution on his route. The prints of horses' hoofs upon the damp
soil, in places, were fresh and showed him that he was not only
on the right track, but also that he was at no great distance
behind his company. The sky was overcast, and the clouds, as
the sun came nearer to the horizon, assumed by degrees still
more and more of that misty, dun-colored hue which indicated
the approach of rain. A sombre, dark gray tint, unrelieved by
light and shade, fell over the whole landscape and gave a
cheerless and sullen aspect to the woods. Once or twice the Secretary
reined up his horse and directed his eyes towards the heavens, as
he meditated an abandonment of his expedition and a return
home before nightfall, but as often his pride forbade a retreat
whilst his comrades were afield, and he resumed his journey.
He was in momentary expectation of overtaking the party in
advance, and made sure of doing so when he should reach the
fisherman's hut upon the river beach, towards which it was his
purpose to direct his way. Occasionally, a farm-house opened
upon his view across a distant field; but he was unwilling to lose
the time which a digression from his road to visit it would have
required, only for the sake of assuring himself of his road, with
which he believed himself to be sufficiently acquainted. At
length, night began to fall around him, and his path to become
sadly perplexed. At times, he could scarce make out its traces
in the obscurity of the wood; at times, it broke upon his view
with fresh distinctness, as it traversed a region of white sand,

and thus served only to lure him forward with more alacrity, in
the hope of soon reaching the margin of river, from whence,
even in the dark, he knew he could find his way back - at least,
as far as the house of St. Inigoe's, where he could get shelter for
the night. Now and then, his hopes were dashed by finding himself
involved in those thickets of alder and bay which denote the
presence of a marsh, and he was obliged to thread his difficult
track around the head of some inlet from the river. It grew at
last to be dark night, and, to add to his discomfort, the rain
began to fall. The Secretary dismounted from his horse and
stood, with suppressed breath, endeavoring to catch the sound of
distant waves, hoping to find himself near enough to the river to
obtain this guide to his footstep; but all was silent, except the
pattering of rain upon the dry leaves of the forest, and the
impatient pawing of his horse upon the sod. He shouted aloud for
his lost companions, but his voice echoed, without a response,
through the lonesome wood. "I jested with thee," he muttered
to himself, in a jocular tone, referring to the maiden who was
ever uppermost in his thoughts, "I jested with thee, but a few
hours ago, upon my keeping a vigil of Hallow Mass in the woods.
Dear Blanche, I thought nothing farther away than that jest
should be true; but here my evil destiny hath brought me, for a
punishment, to make it real. Well, I can endure. Heart of
grace, - I will confront it manfully! I would I could but raise
a fire. I can fast upon my vigil and think nothing of it, - if it
were not that my limbs are chilled and my joints growing stiff
with cold."

He now groped around to gather some dry wood, hoping, by
the aid of his pistol, to kindle a blaze by which he might warm
himself and prepare to spend the night in more comfort than on
his horse. He labored in vain, for every thing he could lay his
hand on was saturated with moisture. At length, he mounted

again into his saddle, determined to ride onward until he should
chance to find some place of shelter. He had now not only lost
his path, but also all perception of his course: the darkness
confused him, and he therefore plodded on at a slow pace,
unconscious to what quarter of the compass his footsteps tended, and
discouraged with the thought that every moment, perhaps, carried
him still further from the home he was anxious to seek.

For a while his spirits sustained him without drooping. A
man in such a situation sometimes finds motives of cheerfulness
in the very desperation of his circumstances. Under some such
impulse our wanderer, as he plied his uneasy journey through the
dark, broke forth in song, and in succession poured out nearly the
full treasures of his musical memory; but wearying of this at last,
his note changed to whispered sighs of self-reproof for the folly
of venturing alone into such a wilderness at such an hour. His
mind then ran upon the images which the creed of that day supplied
to the imagination of our progenitors, - the "swart fairy,"
"blue, meagre hag," the spirit of the wood, the wizard and the
spectre; then came dreams of banditti and outlaws, prowling
savages, and thoughts of some accidental coming alone upon the
den of the murderers, whose recent doings had occasioned his
present ride. With these fancies swaying his mind, he grew
apprehensive and distrustful at every step. There are moments
when the stoutest heart will quail before the conjurations of the
imagination: and it is no disparagement of the bravery of the
Secretary to say, that, on this night, he sometimes felt a shudder
creeping over him, at the fictions of his own excited fancy. The
rustle of leaves, or the short snap of a rotten bough, as the fox
prowled along his stealthy path, more than once caused him to put
his hand upon his sword and to ride cautiously forward, as if in
certain expectation of a foe; and not until he had thrice challenged
the imaginary comer, did he relax his grasp of his weapon.

In this state of mind, for full four hours after dark, did he
wander, uncertain of his way, through wood and over plain, mid
brush and brier, over fen and field. At length, his ear could
plainly distinguish the beat of waves upon a strand, and it was
with a joyful change of feeling that he believed himself, after so
weary a circuit, approaching the margin of the river, along which
he was aware he should have a plainer ride, with the certainty,
in the course of a mile or two, of finding some human habitation.
As the sound of the waters grew stronger, whilst he advanced to
the beach, his eye was, all at once, greeted with the welcome
sight of a taper glimmering through the glade, and, by its steady
light, assuring him that no Will-o'-the-wisp, as sometimes he
feared, had risen to bewilder his journey.

With new courage and reviving strength he shaped his course
towards the friendly ray; - on which pursuit we must now leave
him to attend to other personages in our story.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Have
not we
A
commonwealth amongst ourselves, ye Tripolites?
A
commonwealth? a kingdom! And I am
The
prince of Qui-va-las, your sovereign thief,
And
you are all my subjects.
THE
SISTERS.

WHEN Cocklescraft asked
for Godfrey's horse on the night that
succeeded the prize-play, the reader will remember that, as Captain
Dauntrees overheard the conversation, it was accompanied
with an avowal of a purpose to warn an enemy, whose name was
not disclosed, of some premeditated harm which the speaker
designed to inflict.

The broad arrow scratched on the door of the Collector's
dwelling, when discovered on the ensuing morning, plainly
enough referred to the fearful menace of the seaman, and
sufficiently indicated how bitter was his change of feeling against
the peaceful inmates of the Rose Croft. Mr. Warden attached
but little consequence to the implied threat, nor troubled himself
with measures to guard against the intended mischief,
believing it to be but an ebullition of that spirit of disaffection
which the prompt measures of the council had already so far
rebuked as to leave but little to apprehend.

Cocklescraft, immediately after returning to the town from
his midnight ride, went on board of his brigantine, and quietly
weighing anchor, set sail down the river and thence across the

Potomac - here some eight miles wide - and finally, before
daylight, made his way into a small creek on the Virginia shore, a
few miles above Smith's Point, or Cape St. Gregory. Here his
vessel lay sheltered from the observation of the few boats which
passed up and down the Potomac - thus affording him probable
security against pursuit; whilst, at the same time, the inhabitants
of this region were reputed generally to be friends to the
cause of the Fendalls, and enemies of long standing to the
Proprietary. He had, therefore, only to make known the colours
under which he had lately taken service, and he might assure
himself of stout partisans in his defence.

On the second night after his arrival at this retreat, up to
which period he had remained ignorant of all that had transpired
in the town in regard to the arrest of his comrades, he threw a
cloak over his shoulders and taking a common sailor-cap got into
his yawl, which was now rigged with a mast and sail, and steered
for a point on the Maryland shore but a short distance below the
hut of the fisherman. His motive for this caution, in not approaching
nearer to the town, arose from an apprehension that
he might be watched by the garrison of the fort, and perhaps
pursued to his lurking place - an apprehension suggested by that
sense of guilt which predominated over every other feeling, since
his desertion of his late friends and - what weighed with heavier
terror upon his mind - his abandonment of his church. To avoid
this notice he landed near the mouth of St. Mary's river, and
proceeded from that point, on foot, to the town, a distance of
some five or six miles. In his journey along the beach, he had
passed by the hut of the fisherman, and had crossed the creek of
St. Inigoe's, immediately from the Jesuit House over to the
Collector's landing place, being enabled to make this passage in the
manner detailed by the Superior to the Lord Proprietary. Upon
his arrival at the Crow and Archer after night, he became

acquainted, for the first time, with the arrest of the conspirators.
This intelligence hastened him away to hold a short interview
with Chiseldine, by whom he was admonished to tarry as short a
time as possible in the port, as orders were already abroad for
his apprehension. The advice thus timely offered enabled him to
effect a speedy retreat to his boat, by the same route that he had
taken in coming to the town; and he was thus saved from the
fate that would have overtaken him, if he had remained a half
hour longer than the moment of the fiddler's visit to Captain
Dauntrees.

Tired of lying perdue so long on the Virginia shore, he determined
to proceed with his brig, first to St. Jerome's, where he
proposed to wait two or three days to observe the course of
events, and then either to sail abroad or take his course up the
Chesapeake, where, if pursued, he was willing to trust to the
speed of his vessel to baffle all endeavors towards his arrest.
Upon the deck of the Olive Branch - or, as she has now laid
aside her peaceful character, we may call her the Escalfador - he
felt himself secure against annoyance from any naval force at the
disposal of the Proprietary, and this circumstance, together with
a strong confidence in the number of the disaffected with whom
he was associated, inspired him with an audacity that almost
defied the public authorities even in their own resorts.

With a view to communicate his intended change of position
to his confederates, he made his second visit to the town pretty
nearly in the same manner that he had accomplished the first.
His stay in the port, however, was longer than on the former
night, and it was consequently after break of day that he passed
the hut of Simon Fluke. On his near approach to the spot
where his skiff awaited him, he encountered the fisherman, who
was lurking upon his path, and who, at the moment they came
within speaking distance, was endeavoring to conceal himself in a

thicket of cedars. Cocklescraft was not a man to hesitate in the
commission of a crime under any circumstances, and least of all
when it concerned his safety. On the present occasion he did
not stop to parley with the person who waylaid his footsteps, but
obeying the impulse of his habitual sense of hostility to his kind,
and the ferocity of his nature, he drew a pistol from his girdle
and discharged the contents with such certain effect, that the
fisherman fell dead at his feet without a groan. He tarried not
to look upon the murdered man, nor to take any concern even
for the disposal of the body, - but leaving it a prey to the wild
birds that hovered near, he stepped into his boat with as little
emotion or remorse as if he had despatched some prowling beast,
not caring to inquire who or what he was that invaded his path.

On the night that followed this adventure the Olive Branch
quitted her temporary harbor, and the next morning found her
secretly ensconced behind a woody headland, in a nook of St.
Jerome's creek, - about two miles above its mouth, where she lay
safe from the view of all who navigated the Chesapeake.

Cocklescraft began already to feel that he had joined his new
associates in an hour not the most auspicious to his fortunes.
The arrest of the leaders and the quiet that seemed to prevail
throughout the land, created a doubt in his mind whether any
thing was likely to be achieved in the way that he desired; and
more than once he meditated a retreat from the province, yet
resolved, before he did so, to signalize the event by some flagrant
act of vengeance upon his enemies. This thought seemed to
please him; and he spent the day in ruminating over schemes
of retribution against these who had of late treated him with
such contumely. Uppermost in his breathings of hatred was the
name of Albert Verheyden, and a demon smile curled upon his
lip when he muttered it.

now engrossed the attention of his crew. His armament was
put in order; water taken in, and every thing done, - except the
stowing on board of such commodities as he designed to take
away to other markets, - to prepare him for sailing within the
next twenty-four hours, if occasion should require.

When night came on, and the rain fell, and the moon was
quenched, and the murky, cheerless atmosphere, so congenial
with the unlawful complexion of his designs, admonished him
how little likely it was that prying feet or watchful eyes should
be abroad, a revel was held in the Wizard's Chapel. Amidst the
lumber that lay piled in confusion over the floor of the rude but
spacious building, room was found for a rough table, around
which empty casks, broken boxes and other appropriate furniture
of a smuggler's den, supplied seats sufficient for the accommodation
of twelve or fifteen persons. Here were assembled the
crew of the Escalfador, with an abundant supply of strong liquors
and tobacco. A fire blazed on the ample hearth, furnishing to
such as desired it the meals of cooking, in a simple fashion, some
substantial elements of the evening meal; an opportunity which
was not neglected, as was apparent from the bones and scraps of
broken victuals which lay scattered about the fire-place, and from
the strong fumes of roasted meat which sent their savor into
every corner of the apartment.

The men who constituted this company, numbering without
their leader full sixteen, were robust, swarthy seamen, - the
greater portion of them distinguished by the dark olive
complexions and curling black hair which denoted their origin in
Portugal or other parts of the south of Europe. Several wore
rings in the ears and on the fingers, and were bedizened with
strange and outlandish jewelry. The thick moustache and shaggy
brow gave a peculiar ferocity to more than one of the company,
whilst the close and braided seaman's jacket, gaudy woollen
caps

and white breeches - the common costume of the crew - imparted
a foreign air to the whole group. Some wore rich girdles with
ornamented pistols and daggers; and the plainest amongst them
showed a knife secured under a leathern belt. Their only attendant
was Kate of Warrington, who grudgingly answered the
frequent call for fresh potations, as the revellers washed down
their coarse mirth with draughts of brandy and usquebaugh.

Cocklescraft sat, somewhat elevated above the rest, at the
head of the board, where, without carousing as deeply as his
sailors, he stimulated their noisy jollity by clamorous applause.
A witness, rather than a partaker of this uncouth wassail, was
The Cripple, who, having matters of account to settle with
several of the crew before they took their departure, had now
swung himself into a corner where, with a lighted fagot stuck in
a crevice of the wall, he alternately gave his attention to a
pouch containing his papers of business, and to the revelry of the
moment; chiding the prodigal laughter of the crew, one moment
with querulous reproof, and the next with a satirical merriment.

"Bowse it, lads!" exclaimed Cocklescraft, as he brandished a
cup in his hand; "drain dry to the Escalfador! - our merry little
frigate shall dance to-morrow on the green wave, - so, do honor
to the last night we spend ashore. Remember, we have a reckoning
to settle before we depart, with the good folks of St.
Mary's. Are you all ready to follow me in an exploit of rare
devilry? - Speak, boys!"

"Ay, ready, Master Captain!" was the response in a general
shout.

This outburst roused The Cripple, who, lifting his head from
the paper, which at that moment he was perusing, and looking
from under his spectacles upon the crew, was heard to mutter
when the shout subsided - "As ready as wolves to suck the blood
of lambs. How can they be else under thy nursing, Dickon?"

"Ha, old dry bones, art thou awake? By St. Iago! I
thought that thy leaden eyelids, Rob, had been sealed before
this. Ho, lads, bring Master Robert Swale forward - we shall
treat him as becomes a man of worship: - upon the table with
him, boys."

The face of The Cripple grew instantly red, as a sudden flash
of passion broke across it. He dropped the paper from his hand
and drew his dagger; - then, with a compressed lip and kindling
eye, spoke out - "By St. Romuald! the man that dares to lay
hand on me to move me where it is not my pleasure to go, shall
leave as deep a blood stain on this floor as flowed from the veins
of Paul Kelpy. Who are you, Dickon Cocklescraft, that you
venture to bait me with your bullies?"

"How now, Master Rob?" exclaimed the skipper, as he rose
from his seat and approached The Cripple. "Would'st quarrel
with friends? 'Twas but in honest reverence, and not as against
your will, that I would have had thee brought to the table.
Come, old comrade, we will not be ruffled when we are to part
so soon. What would you have, good Rob?"

"These bills shall be first paid by your drinking roysters
before they go to sea," replied The Cripple, somewhat appeased
by the skipper's manner. "Here are items of sundry comforts
supplied - meat and drink and lodging; - and here are services
of Mistress Kate both in making and mending; - here for
trampling down my corn, and for killing -"

"Pshaw - a fig's end for your tramplings and killings, and all
this rigmarole of washing and mending!" interrupted Cocklescraft.
"I would be sworn your conscience has undercharged
your commodity: - so, there is enough to content you for the
whole, with good usury to the back of it," he said, putting a
well-stored purse of gold into Rob's hand. "You have ever been
too modest in your dealings, friend Robert of the Trencher: -

when you get older you will know how to increase your gear by
lawful gain."

"A hang-dog - a scape-grace - a kill-cow - a devil's babe in
swaddling bands of iniquity, thou art, Child Dickon!" said Rob,
laughing with that bitter salt laugh that gave to his countenance
the expression of extreme old age. "Thou dost not lack, with
all thy wickedness, an open hand. I have ever found thee
ready with thy gold. It comes over the devil's back - Dickon,
ha, ha! - over the devil's back, youngster, - and it goes - you
know the proverb. This closes accounts, so now for your humor,
lads, I will pledge you in a cup."

"To the table with him, boys," said Cocklescraft, nodding his
head to those who sat near him; and, in a moment, The Cripple
was lifted up in his bowl and set, like a huge dish, in the middle
of the board, - a ghastly grin of acquiescence playing all the
time upon his sallow features.

"Fill me a glass of that wine of Portugal," said Rob, as
soon as he found himself in the centre of the company. "Here,
boys," he added when the wine was put in his hand, "here is
success to your next venture, and a merry meeting to count your
gains."

"Amen to that!" shorted Cocklescraft; "Our next venture
will be a stoop upon the doves of St. Mary's."

"And a merry meeting will it be when you count your
gains," interposed the harsh voice of Kate of Warrington.
"Robert Swale will keep the reckoning of it."

"Fill for me," cried out Roche del Carmine, in his Portuguese
accent. "I will pledge the captain and our company, with 'His
Lordship's Secretary,' - we owe him a debt which shall be paid
in the coin of the Costa Rica."

"Bravo, - A la savanna, perros! - Huzza, boys, - shout to
that!" clamored Cocklescraft, at the top of his voice. "Drink
deep to it, in token of a deep vengeance! I thank you,
Master Roche, for this remembrance. Now, comrades, you have
but half an hour left before you must depart to bring down the
brigantine to the mouth of the creek. A pipe and a glass
more - and then away; so, to it roundly, and make profit
of your time! - Tobacco, Mistress Kate, - fill Master Swale's
pipe first, and then mine: - make the bottle stir, my merry
men all!"

Having thus given a new spur to the revelry of the board,
the skipper, unasked, broke forth with a smoking song familiar
to the tavern haunters of that era.

"Tobacco's
a musician,
And
in a pipe delighteth;
It
descends in a close
Through
the organ of the nose,
With
a relish that inviteth.
This
makes me sing So, ho, ho! so, ho, ho, boys.
Ho,
boys, sound I loudly,
Earth
never did breed
Such
a jovial weed
Whereof
to boast so proudly."

"The cackle of a
wild goose, the screech of a kingfisher in
foul weather, hath more music in it, Dickon Cocklescraft, than
this thou call'st singing," said Rob. "I would counsel thee
stick to thy vocation - thy vocation, Master Shark, of drinking
and throat-cutting, and leave this gentle craft of music-making
to such as have no heart to admire thy virtues. Ha, ha!" - he
paused a moment to indulge his laugh. "When a galliard
of your kidney, dashed with such poisonous juices as went into
the milk that fed you, has a conceit to be merry, the fire-crackling
of roof trees and the clashing of steel are the fittest melody
or his mirth. Dickon, try no more ditties, thou wilt never make
a living by the art."

"By St. James! I have sung at more honorable feasts than
it ever fell to your lot to partake of. Ay, and lady-songs, too,
and been applauded for my voice, old goblin of the Bowl!
Have I not sung at the back of Sir Harry Morgan's chair, in
the great hall of the Governor of Chagres, in the Castle St.
Lawrence, when we made feast there after the sack of the
place?"

"Truly," replied The Cripple; "whilst the hall streamed with
blood, and the dead corpse of the Governor was flung like
rubbish into a corner, to give more zest to your banquet - and
the women -"

"You have a license, Rob of the Trencher," interrupted
Cocklescraft; "to snarl at those you cannot excel. So e'en take
your own sweep! When you can better sing a better song, then
I will hearken to you."

"On my conscience, can I now, at this very speaking, Dickon
Cocklescraft," said The Cripple, "a better song than ever trilled
through thy pipes.

'All
dainty meats, I do defy,
Which
feed men fat as swine,' " -

he sung, by way of
proof of his skill, with a tremulous cadence
and melancholy whine, as he flourished his pipe in a line with his
eyes, and nodded his head to mark the time.

"The man has gone clean mad," ejaculated Kate of Warrington,
who had for some time past been quietly seated on a
stool near the fire, and who now arose and stepped up to the
table to satisfy herself that it was actually The Cripple whose
voice had aroused her. "You had better be telling your beads
and repenting of your sins upon your shrivelled hams, than
tinkling your cracked and worn-out voice at midnight, to be
laughed at by guzzling fools - barked at by sea-dogs! It is time,
Robert Swale, your old bones were stretched on your bed."

"Faith, thou say'st true, Mistress Nightshade," replied Rob;
"thou speak'st most truly: I am over easy to be persuaded into
unwholesome merriment - it has been the sin of my life. So,
put me on the floor - and now my crutches - my sticks, Kate,
There - thy lantern, Kate."

"Away, lads, to the brigantine," said Cockleseraft, rising
from his seat. "When you get her at anchor off the Chapel,
come ashore and pipe me up with the boatswain's whistle. We
have some boxes here to put on board; and then, good fellows,
we will make a flight into the city, and ruffle the sleep of some
of the burghers, by way of a farewell. Rob, I will go with you
to your cabin: I shall catch an hour's sleep in my cloak."

"As thou wilt - as thou wilt, Dickon," returned The Cripple
as he set forth, with a brisk fling, on his journey, lighted by the
lantern of the beldam.

"Leave the lamp burning," said Cocklescraft to the last of
the crew, as the man was about to follow his companions who
had already left the room; "it will serve to steer by when the
brigantine comes out of the creek."

In the next moment the Wizard's Chapel was deserted by all
its late noisy tenants, and the skipper was on his way, in the
track of The Cripple, towards the hut.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Cold
drove the rain - November's wind
Sang
to the night with dreary din:
A
wanderer came, but did not find
A
heart or hand to let him in.
GLENGONAR’S
WASSAIL.

As Albert Verheyden
approached nearer to the light that had
broken upon his view and cheered his footstep, he was able
to discern the dim outline of a building of ample dimensions,
obscurely traced on the eastern horizon, now relieved of that
back-ground of forest which had hitherto circumscribed his vision.
The rain still continued to fall in a soft and steady drizzle,
through which a feeble, diffused light barely sufficed to show
that the moon, now entering on her second quarter, struggled to
assert her dominion over the night. The wave rolling in upon
the sand with a ceaseless and sharp monotony, apprised him of
the proximity of a broad expanse of water, and he had accordingly
little doubt that he had now reached the shore of the
Potomac - somewhere, as he conjectured, in the neighborhood of
the cabin of Simon Fluke, whither he supposed his steps had
unknowingly tended through the long and perplexed circuit of
his bewildered journey.

When within an hundred paces of the light, he found his
further progress on horseback embarrassed by a somewhat
precipitous bank, which induced him to alight and make the rest
of his way on foot, leaving his horse attached to the drooping

limb of the tree under which he had dismounted. With eager
step he advanced to the house, and on reaching the door, knocked
loudly for admission.

"Good people," he exclaimed as he repeated his knocks,
"arouse for the sake of a benighted wanderer who has lost his
way in the wood. Pray you, give me admittance."

There was no answer; and finding that upon touching the
latch the door yielded to his thrust, he entered without farther
ceremony. The embers of a large fire glowed on the hearth: a
solitary iron lamp, supplied with the fat of some animal, instead
of oil, burned, with a bickering flame, upon the middle of a coarse
table, over which cups and cans, glasses and bottles were strewed
in disorder; pipes lay scattered around, and the coarse hempen
covers of bales and cordage of broken packages lumbered up the
corners of the room: As the Secretary raked up the glowing
coals and warmed himself before the welcome fire, it was with an
air of wonderment, not unmixed with apprehension, that he cast
his eyes around this strange and uncouth place, and lost himself
in the attempt to conjecture whither his erring fortune had
conducted him.

"Here have been dwellers," he said, "and recently; but
whither have they fled? Can I have so far lost my may as to
have straggled to the Patuxent, instead of the Potomac? Faith,
I believe it; for I have heard my Lord has a store-house there,
where he collects his customs - and this, by what I see around
me, must be some such place. Well, Patuxent or Potomac, I
care not which; - most heartily is the roof welcome: for, beyond
this I venture not again to-night. I would I might see the
keepers here! Surely they are not far off, since their flagons are
left behind - and not drained, neither, for here I find good drinking
ware, which, to my poor spent frame, is no boon to be despised.
I greet you, honest nectar," he said, as he poured out

some wine and drank it off; "you come at a good time, and with
a smack that your dainty wine-bibbers wot not of. - Heigho!
was ever man so weary? I shall stretch me down on these
coarse wrappings. And there, good cassock, you have done me
faithful service to-night: before the fire I spread you out to dry,
and in this corner make my bed."

As these muttered ruminations escaped the Secretary's lips,
he collected the remnants of bags and the rough cloths that had
formerly served to envelop items of merchandise, into a heap on
one side of the fire-place near the wall; and spreading his wet
surcoat in front of the live embers which he had now renovated
with some billets of wood that lay at hand, he hung his exhausted
frame upon his hastily-gathered bed, and in a few moments was
locked in a sleep that might have defied the clamor of a marching
host.

Here we leave him, whilst we turn to the hut of The Cripple.

The skipper, intending to meet his men as soon as they should
despatch the business upon which they were sent, and desirous to
snatch a short repose in the interval of their absence, had thrown
himself, immediately after entering Rob's cabin, upon a couch of
the skins of wild animals, which the woman of Warrington had
spread for him; Rob had withdrawn into his own apartment, and
the crone, having now discharged her household cares, hastened
over the bank to her solitary lodge. For some time The Cripple
remained in an abstracted self-communion, whispering to himself
bitter taunts upon his own folly in consorting with the ruffians
of the Chapel, and occasionally chuckling with his customary
sneer at the profligate arts by which they collected their wealth,
and the dissolute liberality with which it was squandered. After
this, according to a usage which was observed with singular
exactness for one of his habits of life, he addressed himself to his
devotions, with the apparent fervor of a sincere penitent, and

scrupulously performed the offices of prayer and meditation
appointed by the ordinances of the church to which he belonged.
When, at length, he was about to retire to rest, he was not able
contentedly to do so, until, with that characteristic solicitude
which belonged equally to his temper and the period of his life,
he gave a few parting moments to the computation of the gains
of the day.

"Dotard!" he exclaimed, as he began to cast up this account,
"I have left my wallet in yonder Chapel, with all my
papers. Oh these cup-riots - these heady revels, made for hot
brained fools and prodigal unthrifts! What fellowship should
my white hairs and hollow wrinkles find with them, that I must
needs turn herdsman to these bears? Folly goeth armed with a
scourge, and layeth on roundly, good faith! How have I been
whipped by that most wise fool in my time! Well, for a penance,
get thee back, thou curtailed and misshapen sinner! get
thee back the weary way to the Chapel. Ha! should these nightbirds
make prize of my written memorials! - Hasten - hasten
thee, Rob! - The lantern - the lantern! and then away."

The lantern was lighted and swung by a small chain across
his shoulder, and taking his crutches, he was soon beyond his
threshold, making good speed to the Wizard's Chapel.

This sudden motion had so far roused his spirit and altered
his mood - which was ever fitful and subject to rapid change -
that, as he swung briskly onward, he found himself humming a
tune; and when he had reached the door of the Black House,
he was engaged in audibly singing the words of the song which
had been so unceremoniously suspended by the interposition of
Kate of Warrington:

"He
needs no napkin for his hands,
His
finger-ends to wipe,
That
keeps his kitchen in a box
And
roast meat in a pipe."

"Marry, I can troll it with the best of them yet!" he said,
evidently proud of his performance, as he pushed the door open
and entered the apartment. His first movement was towards
the corner where he had been sitting before he was lifted to the
table; here he discovered the leather pouch as he had left it.
His eagerness to find what he sought in this spot, rendered him
for the moment unobservant of everything else; but now, on
casting his eyes around him, he perceived the coat of the Secretary
hanging in front of the fire, and in the next instant, the
figure of Albert Verheyden himself prostrate on his rude pallet,
breathing the long and audible inspirations of profound sleep. It
was apparent to The Cripple, at a glance, that the person who
lay stretched before him was not of the crew of the skipper.
With an instinctive motion he drew his long knife, or dagger,
from its sheath, and swayed himself forward to the very side of
the sleeping man. The dagger was uplifted, and about to
descend with the impulse of a brawny muscle that would have
pinned the victim to the floor, when The Cripple suspended the
blow, only to make more sure, by the flash of the light of his
lantern across the sleeper's face, that the person he was about to
assail was one who had no claim, from acquaintance or confederacy,
to the privilege of entering under this forbidden roof.
When the secret of the Black House was endangered by the rash
curiosity of prying eyes, or even by the involuntary knowledge
of the casual wanderer, no scruple of conscience, nor shrinking
reluctance to do a deed of murder, might withhold the arm of
the ruthless ascetic who ruled unquestioned over this fearful
domain. A savage scowl lowered upon his sallow front as he
stretched forth his long arm and passed the lantern across the
quiet visage of his unconscious victim, whilst his right hand still
held the dagger in act to strike. The scowl suddenly changed,
as he stooped forward more narrowly to scan the countenance of

the sleeping man, - and a strange expression of instant terror
took its place. For some seconds his gaze was riveted upon
Albert Verheyden's beautiful features, as heaving his head upward,
in a casual motion of his slumber, the Secretary threw the whole
contour of his face into the full blaze of the light, and disclosed
his glossy and almost womanish ringlets, which now straggled
over his ear and upon his beardless cheek.

"Blessed St. Romuald, shield me from this sight!" murmured
Robs with a slow utterance and whispered voice, whilst with still
fixed eyes and a frame trembling in every fibre, he stared upon
the image before him. "It is a spectre conjured hither from the
grave, or the juggling cheat of a fiend, that reads to me, in that
face, the warning of a life of sin? Oh God! - I cannot strike
thee, whatsoe'er thou art! So, in very truth, she looked whilst
slumbering on her pillow! that same fair forehead - that silken
eye-lash, that curling lip. Who art thou, and whence comest?
What witchcraft hath thrown thee into this foul abode? Sure,
I am awake! I have not closed mine eye to-night. There stand
the tokens of this night's debauch; - these cups, these flasks, and
his familiar den of villainy, all bear testimony that I do not
wander in my sleep. These limbs are flesh and blood," he added,
as he raised Albert's yielding hand from his bosom; "and that
brow is warm with the heat of healthful action. Holy saints of
Heaven! can it be? - What is here?" he suddenly demanded, as
his eye caught a glimpse of a jewelled trinket, which, as the
sleeper lay, was disclosed in the inner folds of his vest, and which
The Cripple drew forth by the chain to which it was attached.
"TO LOUISE!" he exclaimed, when his eyes fell upon the simple
inscription on the back of the richly mounted miniature - "God
of Heaven, by what miracle am I haunted with this sight!
Louise - Louise - poor girl! that little portraiture of thyself I
gave thee with mine own hand - 'tis now two and twenty years

age. - it was a stolen effort of the painter's skill, and thou wert
then an angel of light that shed a blissful radiance upon my path.
And is it then true, that this may be Verheyden, his Lordship's
Secretary, upon whose head I have heard ruffian curses heaped
and pledged in maddening draughts by devils at their carouse, is
thy child, Louise? Mine, I would fain confess, after a long and
stubborn life of passionate denial and scornful hate. Oh, Louise!"
he groaned aloud, as tears coursed down his withered cheek,
whilst he bent over the Secretary and parted the hair from the
forehead, upon which he imprinted a kiss; "hapless was thy fate,
but doubly wretched mine. William Weatherby, thou hast been
the fool and dupe of that devilish disease of thy blood which hath
brought showered curses upon thee and thine! There, sleep on
the bosom of thy child, mother of an unhappy destiny!" he said,
as he quietly replaced the miniature. "This is no place for thee,
unwary boy! I must rouse him ere these blood-hounds fall upon
his track -"

"A soaking night, by St. Anthony!" ejaculated the boatswain
of the Escalfador, who, at this instant, thrust open the door, and,
with four or five of the seamen, came clamorously towards the fire.
"Push us yon bottle, and let us see if there be any of the stuff left."

"And let us have fire, Master Boatswain; I am chilled to
the marrow. Pipe thy best whistle for the Captain: he told
thee to pipe it roundly, as soon as the brigantine was out of the
creek."

"I warrant you, I will wake him," replied the boatswain, as
he went to the door and blew his shrill note.

"Ho, old boy of the bowl! what i' the devil makes thee
here?" demanded one of the crew, when his eye fell upon Rob,
who had, at the entrance of the men, extinguished his light.

"Knave!" returned The Cripple; "who gave thee license to
buff and swagger under this roof? Where is Roche?"

"Aboard the brigantine with five of our messmates. They
have her at hand ready to take in the stowage the Captain
spoke of."

"We heard as we came across the field," said the boatswain,
"the snort of a runaway horse, which this fool Francis must take
to be a devil in earnest and he falls to crossing himself like an
old monk in a battle with Beelzebub."

"Whisht! we have a traveller here," said Rob, whose restless
eye and anxious motion had evinced the disquiet of his mind,
ever since the sailors had burst into the room, and who had now
placed himself in such a position as to screen the Secretary from
their observation, "a traveller who has doubtless lost his way and
wandered into the Chapel."

"Why dost not give him the knife?" interrupted the boatswain,
in a whisper; " 'tis the old law of the Black House."

"Cut-throat!" ejaculated Rob, "am I to be schooled by
thee in the law of the Black House? The stranger hath come at
unawares, and is now asleep. He hath seen nothing, heard
nothing, and can report against no one. Put a bandage across
his eyes before he awakes, and let two of the men bear him,
in silence, on their shoulders free of the Chapel, and set him
down in the woods. Thou hast stabbing enough, John of Brazil,
in thy proper calling, without doing murder in sport."

"Caitiff! wolf! kite! - thou shark of the bloody mouth!"
exclaimed The Cripple, in a voice suppressed by the fear of
waking the sleeper, whilst his face grew crimson with rage; "but
that I have no limb to reach thee, that taunt should be thy last.
Here, Francis! thou and Pedro, muffle this traveller in his
cassock and take him hence; when thou hast borne him a quarter

Before the sailors could obey this order, and whilst they
hesitated to perform what seemed to them a useless service of
humanity, Cocklescraft entered the apartment. At the same
moment, Albert Verheyden, whose slumber had been disturbed
by the clamor of conversation, now awoke, and startled by the
first impression which the inmates of the place made upon him,
sprang to his feet, retreated to the wall and drew his sword.

"Where am I - and who are ye?" he exclaimed, with a
confused perception of the persons around him, and of the spot he
inhabited. "Your pardon, friends," he added, as gaining more
self-possession, he turned the point of his weapon to the ground,
and smiled; "I had an evil dream that awoke me. Will your
goodness let me know - for I am a benighted traveller - what
place this is, and to whom I am indebted for this shelter?"

"Ha, by St. Iago, you are most welcome, Master Verheyden!"
said the skipper, as he recognized his enemy in the person
who had made this appeal to the good-will of the company.
" 'Tis my house; make free of it, master! I did not hope for the
honor of this courtesy; - thrice welcome! You have been abroad
to-day to seek the man who made bold to lodge a bullet in the
brain of yon caster of nets, below St. Inigoe's; do I not guess
well? You have had most marvellous good luck; for, first,
before all the world, you, his Lordship's Secretary, have chanced
upon the very murderer. What will you do with him, Master
Verheyden?"

"A misadventure has thrown me into the power of banditti,"
replied the Secretary, with quiet resignation. "I have naught to
say. I know you daring to do the purpose of a wicked will, and
can hope for no mercy."

"You guess me right," replied Cocklescraft sternly. "I dare
do what I will to do. You and yours, especially I hate - and

have sworn against your life. No to-morrow's sun rises on my
Lord's dainty and darling minion. By the law of our brotherhood,
thou diest this night, Albert Verheyden. John of Brazil,
take him forth - and, by the lamplight, discharge a brace of
pistols into his heart. His heart - be sure of it! I would strike
his heart: - it shall kill more than one," he muttered as he
turned fiercely away.

"Dickon Cocklescraft," said Rob, with a gathering anger that
was ill concealed under the show of calmness which he now
assumed, "have I lost my authority under this roof, - mine own
roof, let me tell thee, - that thou venturest to usurp my right to
ordain the fate of the rash fool who invades our secret? At
peril of your future peace and thriving fortune, John of Brazil,
dare to do the bidding of your Captain! Would'st have the
evidences of his death rising up in judgment against us, in the
blood thou spill'st? Thou art but an apprentice, Dickon, to thy
devil's craft, and a halter will yet reward thee for thy folly. I
will pronounce the doom of this intruding spy. Drown him! let
the wide waters wash away all trace of the deed: - let the
ravening shark devour him."

"Ha, ha!" ejaculated Cocklescraft with a sneer, "you have
a conceit in your humanity, Rob! Do it - do it in your own
way; but, in the devil's name, be quick about it. I have a
merry sport for these lads to-night, and little time to lose: - so,
despatch."

"Give me Francis and Pedro," said Rob, "and I will order
the matter myself."

"Away then, about it!" said Cocklescraft; "we lose time in
prating like women at this baby-play. You have commodities
to go aboard to-night - look to it, John. Give a signal to the
brigantine to send the yawl ashore - briskly, boys; we must
work: so, to it!"

And in this strain of ordinary business occupation, the skipper
turned from the horrible fate of his victim with a careless indifference
- almost forgetting, in the concern of shipping some contraband
merchandise, (the rapine of his last voyage,) the dreadful
tragedy which, at his instance, was now in a course of acting.

Albert, calm and silent, like the victim of a Pagan sacrifice,
neither gave vent to the agony of his feelings in sighs, or offered
resistance to the savage hands that pinioned his arms. Under
the direction of The Cripple, the two sailors conducted their
captive towards the hut, Rob himself following with the coat of the
Secretary thrown over his own shoulder.

The rain still poured steadily down, and the faint light of the
moon had disappeared, leaving the scene in almost perfect
darkness. Albert Verheyden, his arms bound with cords, moved at
the bidding of his ruthless conductors, at a brisk and firm pace,
along the beach, until the party arrived opposite the hut of The
Cripple. They approached the door, which being thrown open,
gave to their view the smouldering fire that still threw forth a
glimmering ray from the hearth. A pine fagot soon kindled up a
blaze, and cast a broad, lurid light over the apartment. At
Rob's command the prisoner was brought in and stripped of his
doublet, his boots, and his weapon, all which were taken in
charge by the master of the hut. A deadly paleness was spread
over the Secretary's face whilst these preparations were making:
but his lip did not quiver, nor did his eye lose its lustre.

"Why not take my life at once? Why mock my spirit with
this horrible delay?" he asked, in a tone that partook as much
of anger as of grief. "I appeal to stones - to brutes, more
senseless than stones! Holy martyrs, aid me in my extremity!" he
added, with a subdued and resigned temper. "God will avenge
this wrong."

sailors retreat a pace and mutter inaudible whisperings to each
other. "Ha, thou must be wrought, by thine accustomed devil,
to this work. There, go to it: there are strong waters to aid thy
lacking courage - drink your fill! I will help thee."

Rob now gave to the seamen a bottle, which they put alternately
to their lips. "Fear it not, Pedro! Stint not, Francis!
'Tis an ugly job at best, and needs the countenance of a man's
draught. Drink again!"

"Ay, will I, like a Bloody Brother!" replied Pedro, making
good his word by a second application of the bottle. "I have
been on the Coast, Master Rob, with Mansvelt, before I ever
saw Captain Cocklescraft."

"Ha" said Francis, in a French accent, "and wasn't Francis
Le Grand at the taking of Maracaibo, and in the fight with the
three Spanish galleons? Diavolo! give me the bottle!"

"Brave lads, both!" shouted Rob, with an attempt to laugh;
"brave lads, and worthy! We shall be late with our work, -
haste thee!"

"The necklace! - I had forgot the necklace!" said Pedro,
with a somewhat thick utterance; and leaving the room for a
moment, he returned with a large round stone, which was
expertly enveloped in cords and fastened around the Secretary's
neck.

"Now to the skiff, lads! get it ready upon the beach - see
that thou hast the oars."

At this command the sailors went forth to make their preparations.

"In God's name, boy!" eagerly demanded The Cripple, the
moment the seamen had left the room, "canst swim? Answer
quickly; I would save thy life."

boat - I will cut these cords. When I extinguish my light,
spring into the wave; make to this shore. You will find your
weapons and your garments under the door-sill. These drunken
knaves I will detain from pursuit. Make your way northward,
along the beach. Four miles from here you will reach the
dwelling of one Jarvis - you will find him friendly."

"All ready, Master Rob!" shouted one of the seamen, as he
thrust his head within the door.

"Take more drink, Pedro - 'tis a wet night," said Rob.

Whilst the sailor obeyed this command, The Cripple took up
a billet of resinous pine, which he lighted at the fire, and, under
the guidance of this flaming torch, Albert was led to the boat.

The two mariners took their places at the oars; the captive
was seated alongside of The Cripple, who assumed the helm, and
all things made ready for their eventful voyage. The surf ran
high under the pressure of an easterly wind, which blew in upon
this shore; and nothing was heard but the stunning sound of the
surge, whose foam sparkled as it broke on the beach from the
dark waste of waters of the bay. The torch streamed aloft in
the wind, flinging its light full upon the faces of the sturdy
oarsmen, and plainly enough disclosed to Rob the stupefying effect
of their late debauch at the Chapel, redoubled as it was in the
recent potations which had been supplied at the hut. Albert
Verheyden, unable to account for the sudden interest which The
Cripple had so hurriedly expressed in his fate, scarcely could
persuade himself to believe in its sincerity. But still, like one in a
dreadful hazard resolved to avail himself of every chance, he
inclined his body towards his companion, anxiously waiting to
find himself relieved of the strictures that bound his limbs. From
suspense, doubt, and almost despair, he was suddenly elevated to
the most exhilarating hope, when he found the knife of The
Cripple applied to sever the cord that suspended the weight to

his neck, and, in almost the same instant, to set his arms free.
The boatmen were struggling to push the boat over the sand in
which she was partially imbedded, and having got afloat waited
the moment to go out upon the ebbing surf.

"Steady! strike together, and briskly!" said Rob. "You
will bring home a lighter load than you take. There - sturdily -
as we ride the wave! Ha, the fiend on that white cap! this salt
sea is an unruly monster - it has quenched my light. Pull away,
- we have shipped a hogshead of brine! A plague on thee for
handling an oar! thou hast left me never a dry thread to my
back: - mine eyes flash fire with this dripping sea. In the name
of the wizard! are we not too light in our craft for such a heavy
sea?"

"All free!" said Pedro. "A little salt water will do no
harm: we have good space before us. Keep her head to it,
Master Rob. You may throw the landlouper over, now. If the
tide should wash him ashore, there's a berth to be found for him
in the sand."

"Over with him!" said Francis; "I would not row a cable's
length in so dark a night to drown a king."

"Ha! by my body, I believe that wave hath rid us of the
spy before we were willing to part with him!" said Rob; "he is
not in the boat - I can feel nothing of him around me. Thou hast
better eyes than I, Francis: look under the seat. Seest thou the
prisoner?"

"I see nothing here," replied the seaman.

"Nor I," added his comrade; "these landsmen have never a
liking to a long voyage - ha, ha! Well, he sleeps where no one
will call to wake him in the morning. Put about, Master Rob!"

"I know not right hand from left - north from south, in this
darkness," returned the Man of the Bowl, as he still kept the
boat heading on her outward course.

"Down to leeward!" cried Pedro. "Dost not know when
the wind is in your teeth?"

"Ay," responded Rob, "thou'rt a wise teacher, master frizejacket!
So, now for the surf again - another drenching! I am
a mad-cap fool to be playing the boy, in my old days, with these
storm-chickens. But, to your oars, lads! we must back to
shore."

Some time was taken up in manoeuvering the boat so as
to bring her bow towards the shore, and a full half hour elapsed
before the voyagers had again reached the hut.

As Rob made haste towards his dwelling, he heard footsteps
approaching from the direction of the Chapel, and anxious to
relieve his mind, on the instant, from the doubt whether the
secretary had been fortunate in his endeavor to reach the shore, he
swung himself the more rapidly forward, and before he entered
his door, thrust his arm beneath the sill to ascertain if the
clothes, to which he had directed Albert's attention, were
removed.

"Holy St. Romuald, my blessed patron, I thank thee!" he
ejaculated, upon assuring himself that the articles deposited had
been taken off; "and here, on this threshold, in the sincerity of
a godly vow, I dedicate the remnant of a sinful life to penitence
and prayer! Is it you, Master Cocklescraft?" he demanded,
confusedly, as the footstep he had heard now arrived at the get
of his enclosure. "A stormy night we have had for this foul
play."

"Have you done it, - and well?" eagerly inquired the skipper.
"Hast given that saucy jack to the supper of the crabs? By my
fellowship, I envy you, Robert Swale! - and would have chosen
to do the deed myself, if it were not, that having made a miss in
my encounter with him with swords, it might be taken cowardly
in me to handle him in this fashion. I was glad, Rob, you took

it upon yourself. Didst make a clear plunge of it? Did he pray
for his life, ha? Oh, it was a rare chance that gave him to us
this night! Tell me how he bore himself."

The sailors coming up at this moment, Rob was obliged to
confess that neither he nor the oarsmen had seen the prisoner go
overboard; and thereupon he related the extinguishment of his
light, the heavy surf, and the subsequent missing of the victim.

"A weight was fastened around him?" sharply inquired the
skipper.

"It was."

"And he did not shuffle it off? - Art sure of it? A light
there, Pedro! let me see the boat."

The light was brought, and the boat examined, and the stone
which had been prepared to sink the body found lying under the
stern-seat.

"Ten thousand devils! - he has escaped," roared Cocklescraft.
"Fool that I was, to trust this matter to a deformed
cripple! - how happened he to be so weakly bound and lightly
watched, that in such brief time he could release his arms and
cast away this weight?"

Rob listened to the outpouring of the skipper's wrath and
impatience, with an unaccustomed calmness. Ordinarily his
fretful and rebellious temper would have broken out, at such rebuke,
into imprecation and defiance, and he would have spoken in a
tone which would have made the leader of the pirate crew quail
before him. There was, in the countenance and bearing of the
misshapen tenant of the hut, an expression of command and harsh
and fiery resolve, which alone might master the rough minds
with whom he held his daily commerce; but there was, besides,
a personal awe of him, derived from his secluded life and
greater intelligence, approaching to the fear inspired by a
supernatural being, which was sufficiently potent to disarm the hostility

and secure the obedience of the credulous seamen who followed
the fortunes of Cocklescraft. An answer of defiance and reproof
hesitated on his tongue. His eye glistened like that of a basilisk,
his lip quivered, and his nostril began to distend, - but the
instant thought that it became him not at this moment to quarrel
with the skipper, and that he might only countervail the
mischievous designs (as he was now resolved to do to the utmost
of his power,) of this vengeful and merciless man, by the coolest
watch upon his motions, changed his mood and prompted him to
assume a milder tone.

"Thou must needs have a revel to-night, in the Chapel, Dickon,"
he said with a laugh in which he could not entirely disguise his
scorn; "and these tarred monsters of thine have grown
muddy-brained and thick-sighted; they have neglected to do their work
of breath-stopping so featly, as thou hast taught them of old."

"Whither has the slave fled?" exclaimed Cocklescraft, as
they returned to the hut. "Lurks he not in the bush, - may he
not yet be followed and retaken?"

"Oh, truly!" replied The Cripple; "it is the nature of an
escaped captive to lurk around his prison: an eaglet that hath
broken his cage will fret against the wires for admittance - the
wolf will dally upon the footstep of the hunter. When thou
canst believe these, Dickon, thou mayst hope to find the prisoner
still prowling in the neighborhood of the Chapel."

"The curse of the Brethren of the Coast upon him! By St.
Iago - I will have my vengeance yet! Rob, as the fox hath
scaped from your hand, I may claim a service of you. I shall
set forth instantly for St. Mary's, with a dozen of my picked
men. I have doings on foot, old sinner, that shall delight thee
in the telling. Mischief, mischief, Master Rob of the Trencher!
which I shall keep secret until it be done. I would put such of
my crew as remain behind - barely enough to sail the brigantine

- under your command. You will go aboard and direct her to
an anchorage on the outer side of the Heron Islands nearest the
mouth of St. George's river. There will I join you soon after
daylight. Oh! but his Lordship's city shall ring with wailing at
my leave-taking! What say'st thou, Rob? Wilt go aboard?"

"When do you set forth?" inquired Rob.

"Now, on the instant - as soon as I may gather my cut-throats
in the yawl."

"And at what hour shall the brigantine sail?"

"By two o' clock, at latest, as much sooner as you choose."

"Ha, ha! Thou wilt make me a limb to help thy devilry.
Well, so be it, Dickon!" said The Cripple, after a moment's
pondering over the proposal. "I will take on the office of skipper
for the nonce, as thou takest on thy more accustomed garb of an
incarnate devil."

" 'Tis agreed," cried Cocklescraft, turning around to leave
the cabin; "behind the first of the Heron Islands, Master Rob
- St. George's, I think it is called - remember! And have a
caution that, before you cast anchor, you have got a position
from which the brigantine may not be observed from the town."

"Ay, truly," returned The Cripple, nodding his head and
smiling in derision, as the slipper departed and closed the door
after him - "I will take good care that the brigantine be not
observed from the town!"

It was now an hour past midnight. Cocklescraft hurried to
the Black House where he found his crew awaiting his return.
Francis and Pedro were directed to take Rob on board of the
brigantine, and with two other seamen, who were appointed to
go before them, to await The Cripple's orders. The rest of the
crew, amounting to twelve men, were armed with cutlasses, pikes,
and pistols, and, under the immediate command of Cocklescraft,
took possession of the yawl. In brief space, the Captain himself

stepped on board. With the turn of the night the rain began to
abate; the wind was veering round westwardly, and appearances
seemed to indicate a change of weather before morning.

The word being given, the boat was shoved off from the
strand; and the regular, sturdy, and rapid stroke of the oar was
heard, long after she was lost to view, as she laid her course
towards Cape Look Out
.

Soon after this, Francis and Pedro knocked at the door of
Rob's cabin. "We are ready to put you on board of the
Escalfador, Master Swale," said the first, just thrusting his capped
head and frize-clad shoulders into the hut.

"I am with you, honest gentlemen," returned The Cripple, as
he came forth and followed them to the boat.

"Up with your anchor," cried out Rob, when he found himself
on the deck of the brigantine. "Pedro, make what sail thou
think'st best, and stand out into the bay."

In less than half an hour the sailor waited on his new captain
for orders. "We have a fair berth up and down, master. Whither
do we steer?"

"To the Patuxent," replied Rob.

"Ay, ay - our course is northward." And the brig was soon
under easy sail with the wind abeam, as it blew moderately from
the west, with here and there a star twinkling through the
breaking clouds, as she made her way towards the headlands of
the Patuxent.

CHAPTER XXX.

Both
child and nurse are fast asleep,
And
closed is every flower,
And
winking tapers faintly peep
High
from my lady's bower.
Bewildered
hinds with shortened ken,
Shrink
on their murky way:
Up
rouse ye then, my merry men,
It
is our opening day.
JOANNA
BAILLIE.

COCKLESCRAFT had not
communicated to his men the exact nature
of the expedition in which they had embarked. They were only
aware that their leader had conceived a deep and mortal hatred
to certain individuals in the port; that he had fled from it as an
outlaw; and that their services were required in some daring
enterprise which was designed to indict chastisement upon his
enemies: they cared to know no more. Bred to rapine and
aggression, knowing no law but the law of their own fraternity;
unpitying and unsparing in their violence; the greater portion
of them strangers to the port, - for Cocklescraft had recruited
more than half of his band amongst the islands of the Gulf, on
his last voyage - these desperate men were ready to do the
behests of their chief in any act of outrage to which he might
command them.

In an hour they had doubled Cape Look-Out and were
making dextrous speed up the Potomac. The refreshing breeze
gradually swept away the clouds, and whistled, as it came directly

ahead upon the course of the voyagers; the moon was just
sinking below the horizon, and the stars shone forth through a crisp
and frosty atmosphere; the waving forest murmured with a rushing
sound from the land; the billows of the wide estuary of the
river, under the impulse of the suddenly-changed wind, came in
conflict, with a sharp concussion that sometimes gave forth a
note resembling the scream of the human voice; no friendly light
was seen glimmering from the shore nor from wandering craft
upon the river: the marauders were alone upon the water, plying
the lusty stroke to give a more fatal speed to their purpose
of crime, and the hour was beguiled with ribald jests and obscene
ballads, with wild and drunken laughter, and the meditation of
horrid outrage.

Cocklescraft himself was moody and silent. His thoughts
dwelt upon the past scenes of the night, and upon his present
long-revolved purpose; which, during the last twenty-four hours,
scarce left him leisure to think of other matters. Even the
accidental capture of his enemy at the Chapel, and the escape of
that enemy from the fate allotted to him, lost their power to
move him, whilst he gloated upon the cherished design of this
night.

In another hour the boat had weathered the headland at the
mouth of St. Mary's river. As the skipper entered the river the
first of the Heron islands lay upon his left, and he anxiously
surveyed the localities, to regulate the course of his retreat to his
brigantine, which by his order was to be in waiting for him
abreast the outer shore. "The blessed sun," he muttered to
himself - "shall light me with his first rays to-morrow, on my
seaward track, with my vengeance satisfied to the last scruple.
Ay, by St. Iago," he added, as he shook his clenched hand, and
gnashed his teeth with the energy of his resolve, - "to the last
doit of the debt!"

Another interval of silent labor at the oar, and the dim
light in the windows of the Chapel attached to the House of
St. Inigoe's, yet far off, upon the narrow strip of land which
jutted entirely across the direct line of the boat's course, as she
hugged the shore, showed the mariners that some one of the
officials of the house was at the service of early matins on the
vigil of the Feast of All Souls; and their familiarity with the
watches of the night apprised them that the hour approached
four of the morning.

And now the creek of St. Inigoe's is opened upon their view;
and on the further bank, the house of the Rose Croft, with its
embowering trees, is distinctly traced against the clear starlit
sky. A solitary taper glimmering through an upper window,
denotes a lady's bower, where, under the protection of the
friendly ray, Blanche Warden, perchance, reposes in innocent
slumber, - her fancy sporting in dreams of him who day and
night lives in her thoughts.

This reflection flashed across the brain of Cocklescraft as he
directed the head of the boat into the creek.

"Pull, with a long sweep and a quick," he said in a low but
stern voice. "These watch-dogs of the fort may catch a glimpse
of us." Then having advanced far enough to interpose the bluff
bank of the Rose Croft between him and the fort, he commanded
the men to cease rowing, whilst they muffled their oars.

"Not a word above your breath," he now added in giving the
orders which were to guide his followers through the enterprise
for which they had been brought hither. "Listen to me: we
land under yonder bank - creep in silence to the dwelling you see
above, and pluck from her bed the fairest damsel of this Western
world. Mark me, comrades, - you have sacked towns and spoiled
many an humble roof; you have torn children from the breasts
of their mothers, and wives from the arms of their husbands;

you dragged maidens from the inmost chambers of their
dwelling and laughed at their prayers for safety, - and you have
rioted over all, with the free license of the Bloody Brothers - but
take it to your souls this night, that if, in the assault of yonder
house, one unnecessary blow be struck, a war-cry be raised or
deed of violence done, the man who offends dies by my hand.
And further, when the maiden is brought into your presence let
no rude speech assail her ear. I go to seek a bride, not to
plunder; and I command you all, on the duty you owe your
leader, as Brethren of the Coast, that you do her all honor as
mistress of the Escalfador. My sweetest revenge," - he muttered
without intending to be heard by the crew - "is to marry the
worshipful Collector's daughter without his leave - or her own,
by St. Iago! The rose shall consort with the sea-nettle,
Anthony Warden! - though it be not to your liking. Do ye
heed me, messmates? Roche del Carmine, to you I look to see
this order enforced!"

"If it be but the taking of a single damsel," murmured
Roche, "it was hardly worth leaving the warm fire and the
bottle of the Chapel. Ha! it will be a story to tell in the
Keys that our last frolic in St. Mary's was at the Captain's
wedding!"

"Dost thou prate, sirrah?" demanded Cocklescraft. "By
my sword, I am in earnest in what I say - I will shoot down the
man that disobeys my order."

"I will answer for the crew," said Roche de Carmine; "the
lady shall be handled as gently as a child in the arms of
its nurse."

"Ay," responded several of the sailors; "the Captain shall
not complain of us."

The oars were muffled, and the boat was once more in full
progress towards her destination. A few minutes sufficed to

bring the voyagers to the small wharf beneath the cliff of the
Rose Croft, and in a moment all were ashore, except a single
mariner who was left to guard the boat.

"Peace!" whispered Cocklescraft; "peace with that rattling
of pikes. Form under the bank and remain quiet until I ascend
and examine the place."

The leader now crept, with noiseless footstep, up the pathway
which terminated upon the plain in front of the dwelling. He
walked across the lawn, by the very spot where, scarce a
fortnight gone by, he had had his hostile interview with Albert
Verheyden. The little rustic temple of St. Therese yet stood,
with its faded foliage, upon the grass-plot: the flower-stands
were still there, although the plants were removed to their
shelter from the frost: nothing met the eye of the foul-purposed
rover but the images of content and innocence which marked the
abode of a happy family: even the house dog, who at first
growled as with show of battle, changed his threat into greeting
as the Skipper proffered his hand and claimed acquaintance.
The tokens of confiding security were all around him, and as he
recalled the last time he had visited this place, and remembered
the incidents of the festival of St. Therese - the maiden's coldness,
her father's disdain, and the Secretary's favor, he laughed
with the thought of the mastery he now held over the fate of
the household. He could scarcely withdraw himself from the
luxury of his present rumination, but wandered to and fro
in front of the dwelling, - then made a circuit around it, and,
returning again to the front, stood beneath the window through
which the feeble taper shone with that steady but subdued ray
which of itself was a symbol of the deep repose of the tenant
of the chamber.

"I could wake thee, lady gay," he said, "with as blithe a
serenade as ever tuned thy dream to pleasant measures - but

that I lack the instrument. And though I be not the cavalier
of thy fancy, Blanche Warden, pretty rose of St. Mary's, - yet,
by my soul, I love thee well enough to put myself to some
pains to teach thee how thou shalt love me. We dance together
on the green wave to-morrow, lass! - little as you dream of such
merriment now. And as I would not have thy blushes seen, I
must e'en lead thee forth before the day."

With this sally, he returned to his comrades, and commanded
them to ascend the bank. Three men were detached around the
house to keep a look-out, and the other eight, following
Cocklescraft himself, approached the hall door.

"What, ho! Fire, thieves, robbers!" shouted Cocklescraft,
aided, in raising a clamor, by his men, at the same time striking
loudly with the butt of a pike against the door. "Rouse ye,
rouse ye, or you will have a house about you ears! Fire,
Master Warden, thieves, rovers, and savages!"

A scream was first heard in the chamber from the window of
which the light had been seen - and Cocklescraft, putting his
hand to his ear, laughed as he recognized the voice of the
maiden.

"By our lady," he said - "our gentle mistress sings well!"

In the next instant a window was thrown open on the
opposite side of the house, and the figure of Anthony Warden,
in his night gown, with a candle in his hand, was partially
thrust out, whilst he exclaimed -

"What is this pother? Who comes at this hour to alarm
the family? Who are ye, I say, that seek to disturb the rest
of my household with your villainous shootings?"

"Answer him, Roche," whispered Cocklescraft; "I dare
not."

"Open your doors, Collector," said Roche; "we have
business with you."

"Get you hence, drunken knaves!" returned Mr. Warden.
"I will call my servants and drive you off the ground."

"By my hand, if you do not open your doors, Master Warden,"
said Cocklescraft, finding that he could not trust the
conduct of the assault to his mate, "we will break them open,
and quickly -"

"Who are you that speak so saucily?" demanded the Collector.

"Richard Cocklescraft - an old friend, Master Anthony, who
being about to put to sea, would make his last visit to the officer
of the port. Throw wide your doors and let us in, old man, or it
may be the worse for thy gray hairs."

The house was now lighted in various parts, and every one
was on foot. Blanche, at the first summons, sprang from her
bed, and ran to her sister Alice, screaming in a paroxysm of
alarm; but whilst the invaders parleyed with her father, she had
sufficiently resumed her self-possession to make a hasty toilet, and
then to repair to the protection of Mr. Warden's presence. The
old man, not coolly - for he was wrought into excessive rage -
but with all necessary discretion and forecast, made his arrangements
for the coming struggle. Two or three servants had
gathered around hits, as he descended the staircase to meet the
assailants who were still battering at the door; and it was with
difficulty that he could shake off the females, who clung around
his step with piteous entreaties that he would not venture into
collision with the band, who, it was now evident, must, in a few
moments, make good their entrance into the house.

"Leave me, daughters - get back to your chamber," he cried,
as he forced his way through their feeble impediment, with a

blunderbuss in his hand, and, followed by the servants, took a
station midway in the hall, whence he was able to direct his
defence to either the front or the rear.

The precautions to which the inhabitants of the province were
accustomed to resort for the purpose of guarding their dwellings
against the attacks of the Indians, had rendered, in fact, every
house almost a castle, and it was no easy matter, without the
proper tools, to force an admission against the will of the owner.
The stubborn character of the defences of Mr. Warden's dwelling
detained the assailants longer than they expected, and gave time
to the small garrison within to take all measures for guarding
themselves that the condition of the house afforded.

The door at length yielded to the vigor of the attack, and as
it flew wide open, the veteran master of the mansion stood with
dauntless front, in full view of the eager seamen; - in the same
instant his piece was discharged with such effect that the two
foremost men reeled and fell across the threshold.

"Give me thy gun, Michael," he exclaimed, as he turned to
the gardener and seized the long Spanish fowling-piece with
which my reader has already had some acquaintance; "I will
teach these ruffians good manners! Back, knaves! - unhand
me, villains! - Michael, Nicholas!"

"Stay that blow, coward!" roared Cocklescraft at the
height of his voice, in the exertion of his full command over the
crew, as they had, immediately on receiving the Collector's fire,
rushed forward and overcome the old man by the press of numbers,
- the servants having fled at this onset. "Strike him, and
you shall fall by my own sword!" he continued, as with his
cutlass he turtled aside the pike of a seaman who had aimed it at
the Collector's breast. "Is it for men to war against gray
hairs?" -

Blanche, as she now sprang, wild with terror, half way down the
stair. "Men of blood, have mercy on his age! - he is old - too
old to do you harm. Oh, save him!"

"By the Blessed Virgin, gentle mistress, I swear not one hair
upon his head shall suffer harm, - for thy sake, dainty lady, if for
no other!" exclaimed Cocklescraft, as with one bound he placed
himself beside the maiden; and raising her aloft on his arm, he
leaped back to the hall and thence out upon the lawn. "Follow
me, comrades!" he shouted, as he bore the screaming maiden
stoutly on his shoulder down the bank, and laid her senseless
upon the seat of the boat. Here he threw his cloak over her
person, and summoned his men immediately to their posts, -
having taken care to bring away the two wounded seamen. -
The boat was about to be shoved off from the wharf, when the
figure of a female was descried coming, at a rapid flight, from
the direction of the dwelling, and uttering a shrill note of
lamentation, as she begged them to stop:

"For the love of God, leave her behind! Oh, have pity,
good men, and do not tear away the Collector's daughter, our
young mistress! Christian men, spare her to us! She will die
of cold - she will perish on the water - her blood will be on your
heads!"

"Thou'rt a good nurse, Mistress Coldcale," said the Skipper
with a sportive tone which mocked the distress of the sufferers;
"and as our queen will want an attendant, thou shalt even go
with us. Put the old woman aboard, comrades!" he added,
speaking to some of the men, who, almost before the housekeeper
could utter the shriek which now rose from her lips, was lifted
over half a dozen heads, and deposited beside her young lady.

"Cheerily, now to your oars!" shouted Cocklescraft, exulting
in the success of his inroad. "Lay your sinews to it, lads, until
we get clear of the creek, and then up with your sail! - we have

a fair wind and a merry voyage before us. Speed thee! I scent
the coming dawn."

Almost in as brief space as we have taken to relate it, the
boat had shot forth into the middle-of the creek, and now glided
over the waters like an imp of darkness flying homeward to his
ocean cave freighted with the spoils of some evil errand.

CHAPTER XXXI.

And
hurry skurry, forth they go,
Unheeding
wet or dry;
And
horse and rider snort and blow,
And
sparkling pebbles fly.
LEONORA.

ALBERT VERHEYDEN, at
the appointed signal from The Cripple,
had sprung into the surf, at the moment when it broke with its
greatest violence against the bow of the boat, and, almost
without an effort, was swept in upon the hard beach. His first
motion, on gaining his breath, was to hasten to the hut, seize
the clothes that had been stripped from him, as well as his
weapons, and to speed, at the full measure of his strength, - now
stimulated by his mysterious and almost miraculous deliverance,
- northwardly along the margin of the bay; keeping sufficiently
remote from it, however, to screen himself by the thickets, which
grew a short distance from the water's edge, from detection by
those who might, perchance, be on the watch to observe his course.
His limbs were chilled, but by degrees, exercise threw a glow over
his frame, and he soon found himself recovering his suppleness and
power to endure the toilsome walk by which he labored to reach
the friendly shelter indicated by Rob's hurried instruction in the
hut. After what seemed a progress of at least twice the space in
which he was told he should find the dwelling of Jarvis, he was,
at length, greeted with the cheerful sight of an humble homestead,

seated upon the plain, within a hundred paces of the tidemark.
He walked at once to the door and rapped loudly, as a
distressed man is apt to feel it his right to do in a Christian land.

"I pray you, good people, open your door to me," he said;
"rise, Master Jarvis, and admit a friend: in the name of charity,
I entreat the shelter of your roof."

In a moment the door was ajar, and a sleepy voice heard
from within challenging the comer -

"Who are you that knocks so late and loud at this door?"

"A friend, good Master Jarvis."

"Is it shipwreck?" inquired the master of the house, as he
opened the door and admitted the wanderer. "Stand a moment
until I get a light. Are you alone?"

Before an answer could be given to these queries, the questioner
had departed, and in a few moments returned with a
candle, whose ray disclosed to the Secretary a comfortable family
room, furnished according to the primitive fashion of a substantial
tiller of the soil of that era. It took but little time for Albert to
rehearse the eventful story of the night, and his narrative was
answered with a kindness that gave him assurance of being now
under the protection of a friend. The good man of the house
detained him no longer than was requisite to enable his dame to
prepare a couch, to which the Secretary, upon the housewife's
summons, eagerly repaired, and soon turned his sufferings to a
happy account, as, in self-felicitation at his escape, and in rendering
thanks to God for the mercy that had raised him up a friend
in his extreme need, he sank into sweet oblivion of his troubles.

"At the dawn of day, he rose refreshed and invigorated, and,
being provided with a horse by the hospitable farmer, staid
only
to express his gratitude to his host for the favors he had received,
and then, with as much expedition as he could command, pricked
onward to the town.

The rising sun gilded the chimney-tops of the dwelling of the
Rose Croft, as the Secretary descended from the distant hill
which gave him a glimpse of, what he deemed, that happy
homestead, through the embowering trees. The atmosphere was
instinct with a keen and bracing healthfulness which imparted
a cheerful tone to the aspect of the scene; and as he stood in his
stirrups and looked around him, it was with a gladness he had
never known before in his life, that he contemplated his near
approach to his home. Thither he resolved to go only to refit
his disordered dress, and then to hie with quickest speed to the
mistress of his heart, to whom, with an impassioned delight
natural to the romance of his mind, he hoped to tell his perilous
and startling adventure.

The roofs and bowers of the Rose Croft sank from his view
as he hastened onward; and he, at length, found himself on the
skirts of the little city. There were ominous gatherings of the
burghers in the street; and the speakers shook their heads, and
seemed to the Secretary to converse with a mysterious gravity.

"They have heard," he said to himself, "of my mischance in
losing my way, and are fancying that I have encountered the
Indians. No, - they see me riding here, yet no one comes to
greet me: - there are other tidings in the wind."

And with this conclusion, anxious to know what had occasioned
this early commotion in the little mart of news, he pressed
forward to the Proprietary mansion.

An hour before the arrival of the Secretary, Rob of the Bowl,
mounted on a sober-paced horse, - his thighs grasping the saddle
with more security than one might expect from his diminished
quantity of limb, his trencher hanging by a strap like a huge
shield at his back, entered the town. He had run the Escalfador
into the little inlet of Mattapany, just inside the Patuxent
where he left her under the guns of the fort which the Proprietary

maintained at this post; and going immediately on shore,
he communicated to the commander of the garrison the
circumstances which induced his visit, requesting that the brigantine
should be detained at her present mooring until his Lordship's
pleasure might be known. Then, having procured a horse, he set
forth, long before daylight threw its flush upon the eastern sky,
upon his journey to St. Mary's, not doubting, to hear, upon his
arrival there, a story of outrage (though against whom, or how
perpretrated, he could not guess) done by the
band of
the Wizard's
Chapel. Without stopping to notice the wandering gaze of the
townsfolk at the strange and unfamiliar spectacle he exhibited to
them, he made his way directly to the dwelling of Father Pierre.

By the aid of the good father himself, he was dismounted
from his horse and straightway conducted into the study of the
churchman.

"You have reason to be amazed at this early visit, reverend
father," he said, "but my errand will allow no ceremony."

"You come to tell somewhat of the ruffians," hastily answered
Father Pierre, with a look and tone of sorrow, which informed
The Cripple, at the outset, that some deed of horror had already
been done, - "who last night violated the sanctuary of the
worthy Collector's roof, and stole away his daughter -"

"Hah!" exclaimed Rob, kindling with sudden wonder;
"was that the drift of Dickon Cocklescraft's raid last night!
He has stolen the damsel? Viper! hell-hound! I heard it not,
holy father: but I guessed some such outrage. I have hastened
hither faster than these crippled limbs are wont to travel, to tell
thee where the robber may be found. I knew his purpose of
mischief, though not against whom it tended - ha, ha, ha! I
have baulked him! I have baulked him!"

"Speak, old man, more coherently: we are lost in doubt, and
overcome with grief, - say, where has the ravisher fled?"

"To the Heron islands, at the month of the river. There he
hopes to find his brigantine - but I have cheated him, Father
Pierre! Lose no time - but set pursuit on foot."

"The town is wild with conjecture," returned the priest;
"Master Warden's servants have told the dreadful tale: but
whither to search, no one yet has told. Come instantly with me
to the Proprietary's. He who can point out the path of rescue
will be more than a welcome guest."

The priest lost no time in causing Rob to be again set in his
saddle; and walking beside the horse across the plain which
separated the dwelling of the Proprietary from the city, Father
Pierre soon halted with his companion at the door.

Previous to the arrival of The Cripple, and afterwards,
during the conference between him and the Proprietary, in which
measures were debated for the pursuit of the pirates, the excitement
of the inhabitants of St. Mary's was aroused to the most
intense agitation. The tidings brought from the Rose Croft had
awakened the town at the dawn of day, and rumor told in every
dwelling the sad history of the skipper's onslaught. The fate of
Blanche was bewailed by all with bitter lamentation. Old and
young grew frantic at the thought of a delicate and defenceless
maiden, torn from her parent bower, in the dead of the night,
and abandoned to the custody of miscreants, in whose bosoms
not one sentiment of pity or remorse mitigated the fury of their
brutal passions; and they uttered deep imprecations as they
dwelt upon the dreadful fate which had befallen their cherished
Rose of St. Mary's. All were astir to do something for her
rescue, yet none seemed to know what was proper to be done.
The women wrung their hands and wept, running wildly from
place to place; the elder burghers conversed in doubting and
dilatory consultations; and the young men of the port vented
their anger in loud cries for vengeance against the perpetrators

of the outrage, - suggesting as many plans of pursuit as there
were varying rumors of the retreat of the invaders, and calling
loudly to be led into immediate action.

"The Olive Branch did not slip off so quietly on a harmless
flight," said Nicholas Verbrack, the lieutenant of the fort, as he
stood in the midst of some eight or ten companions, on a bluff
bank, which, near the middle of the town, gave a view of the
whole extent of the river. "I thought that there was something
too saucy both in the craft and in her skipper, to have either of
them accounted honest dealers in the port."

"Honest dealers!" exclaimed Master Wiseman, - one of the
five aldermen who were elected every two years to preserve the
corporate franchise of the city, and who contrived to make up for
the want of official duty by a redundancy of official importance;
"Honest dealers, forsooth! That fellow Cocklescraft has ever
been under the suspicion of the board. We have noted him,
masters: but what could we do when his Lordship has always
been personally present in the city, and has, I may say, encouraged
the fellow as a trader, - because, forsooth, his custom
helped to fill the exchequer of the province. Morals before
money has always been my song; but it is preaching to a degenerate
age - what have we to expect?"

"And the women," added Peregrine Cadger, "the women
ran away with the man's wits. Why, mark you, sirs - what man,
I would ask, but would grow bold and freakish, - ay, and wicked,
- who has wife, maid, and widow, ever at his heels, singing and
saying all manner of flateries, till, at last,
one would
think they
had no other note."

"Oh, but it was horrible, - most aggravating and miserable,
- this taking off!" groaned Willy, the fiddler. "Proudly and
gladly would I have felt to be taken in her stead! I would suffer
every misfortune -"

"And the worst of it is, Master Willy," interrupted Wise
Watkin, "they have taken Mistress Bridget Coldcale - that's a loss
to the province: - I should not lie if I said to the whole town."

"Why stand prating and grieving like gossips at a funeral,"
said John Firebrace, the smith, "whilst all the time the rascal
thieves are putting more land and water between them and
us. I think their worships of the council are somewhat tedious
over the matter; they talk longer than is necessary, - or else
that old crop-limbed, vinegar-face, Rob of the Bowl, hath more
to tell, than commonly it is his habit. It is special matter that
has brought him to the port this morning. He knows more
devil's-dealing than it pleases him, at all times, to let his neighbor
hear. Yonder rides Master Verheyden, the Secretary," he added,
as Albert now appeared at a distance directing his course towards
the mansion of the Proprietary; "he may hasten matters. I
would that they would put us in the way of doing something to
save our poor young lady from the jaws of these sharks!"

The smith had scarcely ceased speaking when Captain Dauntrees
was seen coming towards the group. Whilst he was yet
some paces off, he called out to the Lieutenant, -

"Master Verbrack, - quickly get thee to the fort, and march
me instantly twenty men down to the quay. See that they be
provided, Lieutenant, with all things necessary for service. Lose
no time; but away."

The Lieutenant instantly departed, and the Captain approaching
the assemblage, continued, -

"John Firebrace, get thy horse, man, and thy weapon.
Colonel Talbot rides down the opposite bank of the river, with a
score of men at his heels. He counts upon you and your friends.
Meet him quickly on the common behind the Town House."

These orders, hastily given, separated the company; and every
one now hied towards the places appointed for these gatherings.

Already Colonel Talbot was on horseback collecting some of
the more active young men of the town: and in a brief space -
for in truth most of them were expecting the summons - a troop
of some twenty were assembled, ready to follow wherever he
should command. Amongst these were Arnold de la Grange
and old Pamesack, both equipped and mounted after their
accustomed fashion, in a manner that might have provoked a smile
from the furred, and laced, and feathered cavalry of more orderly
armies, but which, we may venture to believe, was quite as
effective as a more gaudy furniture. Last in this marshalled array,
came Albert Verheyden, pale, breathless, and almost frenzied
with the narrative he had just heard of the disasters of the night.
He staid
at the mansion but long enough to substitute a
more
active horse for the clumsy animal on which he had made his
journey to the town; and then hastened to join the party who
were about to be ferried across the river, and to scour the
country along the opposite shore.

Meantime the musketeers arrived at the quay, where two
barges being in readiness, the men were separated into equal
divisions, and, very soon after sunrise, were embarked under the
respective charge of Dauntrees and the Lieutenant, who, with all
expedition, shaped their course towards the islands at the mouth
of the river.

Talbot despatched a half dozen of the party to scour the
shore of the Potomac below St. Inigoe's: the rest, under his own
command, and attended by Albert, were transported to the
opposite side of St. Mary's river, by every boat that could be
mustered for such a service: and being now collected on the
further bank, sprang forward, at the orders of their leader, on their
career of duty, with an alacrity which showed how deeply they
took to heart the outrage which it was now their purpose to
chastise.

CHAPTER XXXII.

She
turned her right and round about,
And
she swore by the mold,
"I
would not be your love," said she,
"For
that church full of gold."

He
turned him right and round about,
And
he swore by the mass,
Says
- "Lady, ye my love shall be,
And
gold ye shall have less."
OLD
BALLAD.

WHEN Cocklescraft and
his crew had again doubled the point of
St. Inigoe's, on their retreat, the sail of the yawl was spread before
the breeze, and she skimmed the waves like a bird of the sea.
Blanche had yet scarcely shown signs of animation, except in the
low and smothered moan that escaped from beneath the folds of
the cloak which, with an officious care, the leader of the pirate
gang had disposed for the protection of her person from the cold.
Beside her crouched the housekeeper, sobbing and sighing and
uttering ejaculations of alarm - one moment for her own fate - at
the next, for the lot of her young lady, - and at intervals shrieking
with a causeless terror, as the little bark, bending to the wind,
dipped the end of her sail into the wave.

The seamen, now released from the oars, were called to the
care of their bleeding comrades. Roche del Carmine, the mate,
was already dead, and the other writhed in the torments of an
unstaunched wound. The band were too familiar with the accidents
of war to be much moved by the fate of their companions,

and accordingly, after applying a bandage to the hurt of the
living man, and merely disposing the body of the dead one in a
position least inconvenient to themselves, they assumed that
indifference to the hazards of their condition, which has ever been a
characteristic trait of the reckless temper engendered by the
discipline of the buccaneer's life.

The beams of the sun had begun to bicker on the face of the
waters when the fugitives reached the island of St. George's,
the first of those few scattered islands in the Potomac which
passed under the general name of the Heron Islands. During
this brief voyage, Cocklescraft had in vain endeavored to soothe
the maiden with kind words and protestations that no harm
should befall her. He took her cold hand and it quivered in his
grasp; and when he released it, it fell lifeless back upon her
bosom: he laid his palm upon her brow, and a clammy moisture
bespoke the agony that wrung it.

"Dame," he said, addressing Mistress Coldcale; "you are
better skilled than I, in these woman qualms, - look to your
lady, and tell me of what she may stand in need. You shall
take her presently on board of the brigantine, and the whole
vessel, if she require it, shall be given up to her comfort."

"She stands in need of her father's house," replied the dame,
with more spirit than she might have been thought, from her
previous fright, to possess. "She stands in need of friendly
faces and kind hearts: - her soul is bowed down by misery. She
will never open her eyes again, never, never - unless it be to look
upon the friends from whom you have stole her. Oh, Master
Cocklescraft - you have broken bread under her father's roof,
and have sat in the warmth of his fireside - his old eyes have
looked kindly upon you, and he has spoken words of welcome
that have gone to your heart with a blessing in the very sounds
of them: - how can you heap torments on the head of his child?

In sorrow and wailing have you borne her away, and she will
quickly wither in your hand; - you have stolen a flower that dies
in the cropping. And oh, her gray-haired father! - with a
broken heart, you have cast him down to the tomb."

"By St. Mary, woman, but I honor, love, and cherish the
maid!" returned Cocklescraft. "Have I not loved her long, as
never father loved her; - thought of her on the wide waters of
the ocean, under every sun; - dreamed of her night after night,
in many a weary voyage; - borne her image before me in storm
and battle, in the chase and in the flight, beneath the stars in the
dead hour of midnight, and at the feast at high noon? Have
I not made honorable petition for her, from her father -
and been refused with scorn and foul insult? And have I not
now, at last, entrapped her as gently as she doth the winter bird
that seeks a crumb upon her window sill? By my faith, fairly
have I won her, and proudly will I wear her, dame! Her father!
- I owe him nothing for his kindly greeting and warm fireside,
and breaking of bread: he hath paid himself by his disdain and
mockery of my suit. Have I not there," he added, speaking
with an angry vehemence and pointing towards the bow of the
boat - "given the life-blood of two of my best and bravest
comrades to the old man's wrath, - and yet did I not myself turn
aside the blow that would have laid him upon the floor of his own
hall?"

"Better that he had so fallen," replied the dame, "than live
to witness what his old eyes saw last night. Better that he died
outright, than live to lose his child."

"Be silent, woman," exclaimed the skipper, "if thou canst
not give me fairer speech. When this anger is gone, and the
maiden is more resigned, I will speak to you - not now. To
your oars, good fellows," he said in a calmer tone to the seamen,
as with the rising sun the breeze had fallen away and the sail

flapped against the mast. "We must pass through this
narrow strait to the opposite side of the islands: - we shall find
the brigantine there at anchor."

A confined channel, scarce above a pistol shot wide from
shore to shore, divided the two islands immediately across the
mouth of St. Mary's river, and afforded a passage for a light
boat between. These islands, thickly timbered to the water's
edge, effectually prevented, by their forest screen, the voyager
along the inner shore from discerning the largest vessel which
might be in the river beyond. It was, therefore, with undoubting
confidence in the certainty of finding the Escalfador at her
appointed ground, that the leader of these rude Argonauts
commanded his men to labor at the oar whilst they shot through the
strait I have described.

When they emerged upon the open river, on the outer side of
the islands, the sun, looming through the thick autumnal haze,
shot his fiery beam over the broad sheet of water, without
disclosing to the anxiously-searching eye of Cocklescraft trace of
brig or boat or sail of any kind. His vision, however, was
circumscribed within a narrow horizon; - for the mist which, at this
season, broods over the landscape - the forerunner of a genial
day - scarce brought within the compass of his observation the
nearer points of the mainland, and effectually shut out all more
distant objects; - a circumstance which, however embarrassing
to his present inspection, had so far been favorable to his escape
from the prying eye of the sentinel on the look-out station of the
Fort of St. Mary's.

"Ha! - twice have I been fooled by that old dotard of St.
Jerome's," he peevishly murmured, when, after straining his sight
in every direction, he became aware that the brigantine was
nowhere to be seen; "he has overslept himself, or given way to
some freak of his devilish temper. Why did I trust a laggard

with this enterprise? But that I spoke somewhat hastily to him
last night, and would not have his displeasure, I would have seen
him gibbeted e'er I would have given the brigantine into his
charge. Yet he is trusty, - and has a devil's spice in him that
fits him for such an outcome, too. He will be here anon; - the
wind has left him, - and what he had, was in his teeth: the
Escalfador does not keep pace with my longings. Patience for
a season, - and meantime we will land on the island, comrades,
and wait for our crippled admiral."

With this intimation he steered directly upon the beach.
"John of Brazil," he continued, "use your time to scoop a grave
for our comrade Roche, and see him bestowed as suits a Brother
of the Coast. Joseph, you and a messmate will kindle a fire
under yonder oak - these women are frozen into a dead silence.
Harry Skelton, get to the lower end of the island, and there keep
watch upon the river, and report every thing that comes in sight.
Now, Mistress Bridget, you and our lady Blanche shall have
sway over the whole island; - the lady shall be an empress, and
you her maid of honor. See, how quickly preferment comes!
You have your liberty, pretty Rose of St. Mary's - so cheer up,
and make a fair use of it."

To this ill-timed jocularity the maiden yielded no reply; and
the skipper believing that, upon being left alone with Mistress
Coldcale, she would perhaps relent into a more tractable tone of
feeling, quitted the boat with the seamen who had gone to execute
his several orders, and thus abandoned the two females to themselves.

"Alack, alack!" sobbed Blanche, as she raised her head and
then dropped it on the lap of the housekeeper; "dear Bridget,
what will become of us? I shall die, I shall die! - my poor
father!"

rescued, he will never hold up his head after the loss of his child
Oh, if our townspeople would but follow, - as I trust they will!"

"Is there a chance of it," exclaimed Blanche, "good Bridget,
is there a chance of it?"

"Ay, truly, my dear young lady, - good and reasonable hope
that these villains have been watched and will be followed. Be
of good cheer, and trust in Heaven. This bloodhound thought
to find his vessel at the island, but the saints have befriended us,
and the vessel has not yet come. All will go well, mistress, -
such wicked men shall not prevail against the shield of innocence."

"The fire blazes cheerily, Mistress Coldcale - I pray you
intreat
our lady to come ashore," called out
Cocklescraft from
a distance.

"Arouse thee, child, I shall be at thy side," said the dame;
"it may be discreet not to provoke the skipper - he is a harsh
man and may be rude, if we be stubborn."

"Mother of Grace, sustain me!" said Blanche, as her frame
shook from head to foot, and she grasped the arm of her friendly
attendant. "Even as you shall advise, I walk, Bridget - I pray
you hold me," she added, as, raising herself on her feet, her
loose and disordered tresses fell over her wan cheek and covered
her breast and shoulders. "Oh, God, this trial will craze my
brain!"

"Do not sink, dear child - you need fire, and this barbarous
Captain has provided it - pray you, be of stout heart, and trust
in coming help."

Encouraged by the support of her companion, Blanche feebly
tottered towards the bow of the boat, and thence landed on the
beach. Whilst she leaned upon Mistress Coldcale's arm and
advanced towards the fire, Cocklescraft came forward to meet her;
and as he was about to address her in that tone of light salutation

in which he had heretofore spoken, he was arrested in his
first words, by the maiden flinging herself upon her knees,
immediately at his feet, and looking up in his face with her eyes
bedimmed with tears, as she cried out for mercy -

"Spare me!" she exclaimed - "Oh, spare a wretched girl,
who has never imagined thought, nor spoken word of harm
against you. Save me from a broken heart and bewildered
brain - from misery, ruin, and disgrace! If I, or any friend of
mine, have ever given you offence, on my knees and in the dust I
entreat forgiveness: - pardon, - pardon a fault whereof I have ever
been unconscious. If one touch of pity dwell in your bosom, oh
think of the miserable being at your feet and send her back to her
home. Land me but on yonder shore, and I will, morning and
evening, remember you in prayers and invoke blessings on your
head!"

"This posture doth not become our queen," said Cocklescraft,
stooping to raise the maiden to her feet, who shrinking from his
touch crouched still lower to the earth. "This is but a foolish
sorrow. Do I not love you, Blanche? Ay, by the Virgin! and
mean to do well by you. I have stuffs of price on board the
Escalfador, which shall trick you out as gloriously as a queen
indeed: - our dame here shall ply her skill at the needle to set you
forth quickly. And then that pretty robe of crimson and minever
which unthinkingly you did refuse, you shall wear it yet, girl.
I have chains of gold and jewels rare, to make you gay as
gaudiest flower of the field. I will bear you to an enchanted
island, where slaves shall bend before you to do your bidding;
and where you shall have store of wealth to scatter with such
profusion as in dreams you have never even fancied. We will
abide in a sea-girt tower upon a sunny cliff, and through your
window shall the breeze from the beautiful, blue Atlantic fan you
to evening slumbers. My gay bark shall be your servant, and

ride, at your command, upon the wave; whilst our merry men
shall take tribute from all the world, that you may go braver and
more daintily. Cheer up, weeping mistress; your mishap is not
so absolute as at first you feared. Your hand, lass!"

Blanche sprang to her feet with a sudden energy, and retreating
a pace from her persecutor, cast upon him a look of resolute
and indignant pride:

"Base wretch," she said, "I dare to spurn your suit. Defenceless
as I stand here, a weak and captive girl, - if it be the
last word I have to utter, - I abhor you and your loathsome
offer." Then relapsing into that tone of grief from which this
momentary impulse had drawn her, she added, "Did you think -
did you think, Master Cocklescraft, when you stole me from my
father's house, that fair speech from you, or promise of gold,
could win me to be your wife? Oh, sir, if, in that error, you
have heaped the sin of this deed upon yours soul, quickly learn
that not all the gold of all the mines, nor longest wooing, nor
promise of a kingdom, if that were yours to give, might persuade
me, - though the speaking of the word should lift me from abject
misery or the pangs of death, - to give a favorable word to your
suit. With holy faith and saddest reverence, I call my guardian,
the ever-blessed virgin Therese, to hear my vow; - I never will
be thine."

"A boat, a boat!" cried out the voice of the man at the
lower point of the island, - and instantly this painful interview
was at an end. The seamen had since their landing been busy in
depositing the body of the mate in a shallow grave, and had just
set up a wooden cross, of fallen timber, chance-found in the forest
of the island, to mark the spot, when the alarm from the lookout
reached them. Cocklescraft repaired with all haste to the
beach, and was soon aware, not only of the boat to which the
seaman alluded, but also of a second of the same description,

dimly seen in the haze, at no great distance behind the first.
They were both holding their course towards the mouth of St.
Mary's river, close on the eastern margin, as if their purpose were
to proceed down the Potomac. St. George's Island lay abreast
the opposite or western shore, and it was therefore necessary
for these boats, if they were destined for the island, to take a
course nearly across the entire breadth of the river, at its mouth.
As, at the moment when first descried, they gave no indication
of such a purpose, Cocklescraft (who did not doubt that these
were parties in pursuit of him) began to assure himself that his
retreat to the island was not discovered, and that his pursuers
were most probably bound to St. Jerome's. Again he cast a
troubled eye over the waters, in the hope to perceive the
brigantine, for which, at this moment, he looked with increased
solicitude, as he had reason to apprehend that, on her voyage up the
Potomac, she must pass the boats that were apparently on their
voyage downward. For some time, he gazed keenly abroad in
silence, or muttering only inaudible curses on the delay of Rob
with the Escalfador, and on his own folly in committing the
vessel to The Cripple's guidance. It was not long before the boats
had reached the Potomac. More, instead of shaping their further
voyage, as the skipper had been led to expect, towards the
Chesapeake, they took the opposite course and stood directly for
the island. They were near enough to make it apparent to
Cocklescraft that each was filled with armed men, and if any doubts
of their hostile purpose had existed before, it now became altogether
unquestionable. Hastening towards the spot where the
yawl was drawn up on the strand, the buccaneer ordered his
crew immediately to their posts. Blanche and Mistress Bridget
were forced to take their former seats, and the boat being shoved
off, was directed towards the point of land opposite the western
extremity of the upper island, - then only known as a nameless

sandy flat, thinly covered with pines, but of late rendered
somewhat more familiar to public repute, by the comfortable
accommodation with which it has been provided as a place of refuge
against the heats of summer, and for the luxury of its bathing.

"By St. Iago, we are hotly followed!" said the retreating
and anxious rover, as he now measured the size of the barges
with his eye, whilst they shot out from behind the cover of the
extreme eastern point of the islands and disclosed themselves in
full pursuit; "and with swift craft, well manned. The devil
hath sent us a dead calm, - otherwise, with this rag of canvass, I
would show these lurchers the trick of a sea-fight: as it is, we
must show them our heels. Oh, that my good brigantine were
here! I would defy twenty barges, and sweep through them all.
Lustily, good follows! slacken not: - halter and harquebuss are
on our track; we die by hemp or leaden bullet if we are overtaken
- so pull amain. You have been in as great straits before
and found a lucky ending. We shall see Rob anon, when this
mist shall lift its curtain: and, once in sight of our good bark,
we shall fight our way to her side. Courage, friends!"

In this strain of exhortation, Cocklescraft spoke at intervals
to his men, whilst anxiously looking to the rear he watched the
progress of his pursuers and seemed to count every wave that
broke against their bows. Not even his experienced eye could
tell which of the struggling rivals in this race had the swiftest
keel. So intense became the competition that soon all other
cares were absorbed in the engrossing thought of the escape.
The boat's crew fell into silence, and when the necessary orders
were delivered they were spoken in the low tone of familiar
conversation, as if the speakers were afraid they might be overheard
by the enemy in their wake. If the concern of the leader and
his crew in their present condition was eager, still more did it
awaken the feelings of Blanche Warden and Mistress Bridget.

The maiden seemed to have forgotten her tears; occupied with
a more absorbing emotion than her grief, she found herself renovated
in strength, and by degrees assuming an upright posture in
the boat, whence, with an ardent and unblenching gaze, she kept
her eye fixed upon the barges that swept along as messengers of
hope to her deliverance.

Some three or four miles yet lay between the parties in the
chase. Cocklescraft steered towards the upper headland of Piney
Point - to use its modern designation - and reaching this, found
a long sweep of the river ahead of him, bounded by a smooth
strand unmarked by creek or inlet. At one moment he thought
of running for the Virginia shore, and there, by doubling back
upon his pursuers, aim to win the Capes of Potomac, in the hope
of meeting the Escalfador; but he could not count sufficiently on
the speed of his boat to risk so dangerous a hazard. -

"If I can but keep my way till night, I shall baffle these
hounds upon my track," he said, in pondering over the
emergency. "A weary day it is before me, and a long run till night.
Perchance, I may meet some stouter craft upon the water, some
up-river trader, whom I may easily master, - and once on a
broader deck, I will fight these landsmen with all their odds
against me. Or, at the worst, I shall run ashore, if I am pressed,
and take to the thicket, where at least, till day be done, I may
lie concealed, and then find my way to the Chapel."

In this perplexity of doubt he still pursued his voyage. The
point which he had passed momentarily screened him from the,
view of his pursuers; but in due time the barges were again seen
across the white sandy flat, looming to twice their natural size,
and seemingly suspended in the air, by that refraction which, in
certain conditions of the atmosphere, is often observed upon a
low shore.

us!" involuntarily ejaculated Blanche, as she rose from her seat,
and gazed across the extremity of the point.

"Not so fast, my merry queen," said Cocklescraft, for the
moment attracted by the lively utterance of the maiden; "they
do not gain upon us, mistress: you will learn presently that they
must weather the point by that same circuit which you may see
traced by our wake. Thou wilt be a better sailor anon. Steadily,
good lads! do not overwork yourselves; we shall make a
long run of it."

"Now, for some miles, the chase continued with little diminution
of the space between the parties. At length it began to
be perceptible that the barges drew nearer to the object of their
pursuit: the shortened stroke of the oar denoted the flagging
strength of the laboring buccaneers, whilst the unabated vigor
of the pursuers showed that the chase was urged by men enured
to the toil of rowing. Still, there was the energy of desperate
men in the force with which the flying band held on their way,
and Cocklescraft did not yet abandon the hope of wearying down
the strength of those from whom he fled. Another hour, and
the barges still crept up nearer to their chase. A death-like
stillness prevailed on board the latter, broken only by the
monotonous dipping of the oar and its dull jar upon the boat, as the
seaman, with unvarying time, turned it in the row-lock and
repeated his stroke. Still nearer came the barges and nearer,
with fearful certainty.

"They come within musket shot!" exclaimed Cocklescraft.
"To the land, boys! we must even fight them on the land."

"Back your oars!" cried out Dauntrees, from the leading
barge: "back, and lay to!" At the same moment he discharged
a musket, of which the bullet was seen touching the
water, in short leaps, immediately across the bow of the pursued
boat.

A scream from Bridget Coldcale was, for a moment, the
only answer that reached the ears of the Captain.

"To your feet, mistress!" said Cocklescraft, as seizing
Blanche by the arm he placed her erect in the boat. "Fire at
your peril!" was the reply he now gave to the accost of his
enemy; "my crew sail under the protection of the Rose of St.
Mary's. Have your weapons at hand!" he added, addressing
his men; "we must e'en leave our boat, and this precious freight
to these land-rats, and take to the wood. You cannot call me
cruel, pretty maiden, - for I give you up, in pure courtesy, to
your friends. You will remember the Master of the Escalfador
as a gallant who would have made you mistress of as pretty a
dowry as ever won maiden's good will. We have had a merry
morning of it, girl, - I would it had been longer - but these
churls behind forbid it: so, without more ceremony in the
leavetaking - for I must needs be in haste - fare thee well, girl!
Even without asking this favor, I kiss your cheek. To the shore,
lads!"

As he spoke, and made good his word by stooping over the
maiden and enforcing her submission to this parting token of his
gallantry, the boat struck the sand, and, in an instant, leader and
crew had sprung into the shallow water, and bounded to the
shore, leaving but their wounded comrade and the maiden with
her faithful companion on board of the boat. A volley was
discharged from the nearest barge at the fugitives, but as the
buccaneer, apprehending this, had given such a direction to his
retreat as to keep the women in a line between him and his
enemy, the balls were thrown wide of their mark, and the
escaping crew were soon out of sight in the forest that covered the
shore.

Upon the land side an enterprise was afoot of almost equal
excitement to that upon the water. The party of horsemen that

had crossed with Colonel Talbot to the opposite shore of St.
Mary's river, submitting to the guidance of Arnold de la Grange
and his old Indian comrade, were conducted along a path which
threaded the thickets lying around the head of an inlet, that now
bears the name of St. George's, and thence took a course down
the peninsula towards Piney Point. Whilst galloping upon the
further margin of the inlet by which the eastern side of the peninsula
was formed, and yet two miles from the point, they
perceived the yawl of Cocklescraft stretching across from the
islands towards the main. A halt was immediately called by the
commander of the party, and they were ordered to screen
themselves and their horses from observation amongst the wild
shrubbery of the spot.

"It is even as The Cripple of St. Jerome's told us," said
Talbot. "This is the boat of the Olive Branch with her thieving
knaves. You may know the skipper, Master Verheyden, by
his flat bonnet and scarlet jacket. See, he looks sternward and
waves his hand to his rowers as if he would hasten their speed."

"And I see the forms of cowering females at his feet," added
Albert. "The boat makes for the point. A blessing on the
day! - these marauders design to land. Oh, happy chance that
we are here! let us not delay to set upon them."

"Hold, Master Secretary! be not too eager," replied the
leader. "Think you they will land, if they see us lying at lurch
to attack them? No, no! our honest friend of the Bowl hath
stolen away their brigantine, and the cheated felons, all agaze at
their mishap, are now seeking a hiding place where they may
abide till night, and then, perchance, repair their misfortune by
some other villainy. We should mar our best hope if they but
catch a glimpse of us. So, quiet, gentlemen; your impatience
shall find action soon enough e'er we get home again. Ah, good
luck, friends! see how bravely sets the wind of our fortune;

yonder comes old Jasper Dauntrees, like a trusty comrade, hot
in chase, with his barge trimmed to the nicety of an arrow's
feathering. He follows close in the wake of the freebooter -
and at his heels, by my faith, there opens now, from behind the
point of the island, his second party. Push for, it, old friend!
The good powers cheer thee in thy race!"

"Master Cocklescraft," said Arnold, "will not be so fool-hardy
as to land on that deep sand with two helpless women to
take care of, whilst he has a soldier like Captain Dauntrees to
track his march."

"You are right, Arnold," returned Talbot, after watching
the leading boat for a space; "the skipper steers wide of the
beach, and means to make a run of it up the river: he is already
passing by the point. Gentlemen, to horse again! we will get
back towards the highland and there keep even speed with the
chase, and, like well trained hawks, stoop upon our quarry in the
nick of time. Beware the open ground, that the skipper may not
see us on the heights."

In obedience to this command, the party set out quickly, by
a retrograde movement, towards the upland, which, although
somewhat remote from the river, gave them, at frequent intervals,
where the cleared forest allowed, an extensive range of
river view. Having gained this height, they traversed it in a
line parallel to the course of the shore, ever directing their
anxious eyes to the fierce contention between the boats for
mastery in the race. Occasionally, in this progress, ravines were
to be passed, a piece of marshy land to be avoided, or an open
field, which might expose the party to the view of the boatmen,
to be shunned. In all such passages of the journey, the services
of Pamesack and of Arnold de la Grange contributed greatly to
the speed with which this scouting company were enabled to
keep pace with the rapid flight of the boats. With deep and

intense speculation did the horsemen watch the progress of the
chase, and measure the distance between the fugitives and their
pursuers. Albert Verheyden, almost counting the strokes of the
skipper's oars as their wet blades flashed the sunbeams upon his
sight, rode for some time in despairing silence.

"He loses not an inch!" he breathed to himself, as his
thought ran upon the freebooter's chance of evading his enemies;
"he has men at the oar used to the sleight, and he will tire down
his pursuers." Again he gazed, and with no better hope. But
when, after losing sight of the river for some mile or two whilst
the party galloped over a piece of wooded low ground, he came
again in view of the boats, joy beamed from every feature of his
face as he exclaimed to his companions, "We advance upon his
flight and shorten the space between! The skipper grows weary
of his labor: thanks to the Captain and his noble comrades, the
day begins to brighten on our enterprise."

"We will halt here," said Talbot, reining up his steed upon a
summit which commanded a near view of that region, recognized
at the present day as Medley's Neck; "the game is nearly run
down - and presently will come our time to speak a word of
comfort to this renegade spoiler. He strains for yonder point, as if
there he meant to land. By Saint Ignatius! it is a wise choice
he has made. We have him, if his folly be so bold as to touch
that strand - we have him in a trap. He comes - he comes,
driving headlong into our hands. Follow!"

Without waiting to marshal his troop, and even without
looking behind, Talbot spurred his horse to a gallop, and plunged
into the forest which covered the lowland even down to the river
brink.

As Cocklescraft and his band deserted their boat and fled
into the wood, Dauntrees with the barges drove rapidly in upon
the shore. A loud huzza from his men announced the recapture

of the maiden and Mistress Bridget. The Captain himself, by
the aid of a boat-hook, made a spring from his barge with an
agility that would not have passed unapplauded even at an
earlier period of his life, and was the first to board the skipper's
abandoned yawl.

"God bless thee, gentle damsel!" he exclaimed as he eagerly
seized Blanche by both hands and almost lifted her into his arms
whilst the maiden, with scarce less alacrity, - her eyes laughing
through the big drops that rolled down her cheeks, - threw her
head upon his breast, and sobbed with convulsive joy - "God
bless thee, dear Mistress Blanche! we will make your father
a happy man again. And you, old sweetheart, Bridget, they
would have stolen you away! By my troth, that Trojan war
and rape of Helen the poets tell of, was but a scurvy adventure
compared with this! - Lieutenant," he added, almost in the
same breath, "leave six files with our oarsmen to guard the boats
and see that they draw off from the shore into a fathom water,
there to await our signal when we return. The rest of the men
will push forward on the track of the runaways. Follow,
comrades; we have no time to lose."

As the Captain spoke, he was already pushing his way into
the wood, on the footsteps of the retreating pirates, at the head
of some dozen files of musketeers. In another moment, the two
females were left alone with the boats and their appointed guard.

"Spread yourselves across the neck," said Arnold de la
Grange, as with a small division of the horsemen he had now
reached a position not more than half a mile from the Point.
"Pamesack, creep down on the shore, and report whatever comes
in sight. The first man who finds the enemy will discharge his
firelock. Scatter, gentlemen, scatter."

This little party of scouts were at the next moment extending
their line across the extremity of Medley's Neck, and cautiously

drawing towards the Point. Some distance in the rear was to be
seen Talbot and the rest of the horsemen moving at a walk, in a
compact body, upon the trail of the ranger's advance, and silently
awaiting the signal by which they were to be guided to the
quarter where their attack was to be made. After a short period
of suspense, the report of a carbine, from the direction taken by
Pamesack, arrested the general attention, and, on the instant,
Albert, with three or four companions, set off at high speed
towards the spot. On reaching the margin of the little bay
which formed one confine of the neck of land, he discovered,
advancing at a quick pace, though yet some distance off, the
handful of men whom the wild adventure of the skipper had
brought into these desperate circumstances. They were in close
array, armed with pikes, and led forward by their reckless captain.
The confidence with which they hurried upon their march
seemed to indicate an unconsciousness of any foe except the party
in their rear. This conviction was now instantly changed, as
they became aware of the presence of Verheyden and his friends.
Staggered by this unexpected disclosure, they were observed to
halt for a moment, as if to receive some counsel from their chief,
and then to advance with a steadiness that indicated prompt and
desperate resolve. Their ranks were formed with more precision;
their pace gradually quickened, and they came nearer to their
enemy; and having approached so near as to enable either side
to hear the command of the other, Albert could distinctly recognize
the voice of Cocklescraft exhorting them to the onset. In
another moment, they set up the war-cry which they had learned
from the Spaniards of the Gulf, and which had grown to be their
own, from the recollections of the bloody frays with which it was
associated - "A la savanna, perros! - to the field, dogs!" - and
thus shouting, anticipated the attack of their enemies by themselves
striking the first blow.

Talbot had delayed to follow Verheyden, only until he could
assure himself that the signal shot truly announced the presence
of Cocklescraft's party. This was rendered certain by a messenger
who rode back to report the fact, and, without loss of
time, the commander of the troop repaired to the scene of the
assault. The pirates had already forced the little party of horsemen
to give ground, when Talbot reached the spot.

"Upon them, gentlemen," he cried aloud, without halting to
form his men; and, in an instant, was seen opening his way
through the pikes of the buccaneers with his sword. Albert
Verheyden, leading on the little band of untrained cavalry,
followed with impetuous haste in the track of his commander. The
compact array of the pirates being broken, a confused pell-mell
fight ensued, with sword, pike and pistol, which was marked by
various success. Two or three of the horsemen were thrown to
the ground, and as many of the seamen slain. Albert's horse was
killed by a pistol shot, and the rider for a moment was brought
into imminent peril. Cocklescraft, animated as much by revenge,
as by a determination to sell his life at a dear price, no sooner
perceived the prostrate Secretary than he sprang upon him, and
would have done the work of death, if Arnold de la Grange, who
had followed Albert's footsteps through the fray, had not thrown
himself from his horse and rushed to his comrade's rescue. He
arrived in time to avert the stroke of the skipper's sword, by
interposing his carbine, and, at the same moment, seized
Cocklescraft by the shoulder and dragged him backward to the earth.
The active seaman was, in an instant, again upon his feet, but
before he could renew the fight with effect, he found himself
overwhelmed by the musketeers, whose unobserved approach
now put an end to the struggle.

"Hands off!" exclaimed Cocklescraft, shaking from him some
two or three assailants, who had now crowded upon him, as the

blood of a recent wound over the eye trickled down his cheek;
"hemmed in and overnumbered, I surrender: - you may do with
me as you will - I ask no favors at your hands." And saying
this, he flung his sword, with a moody and sullen anger, upon the
ground. "A fairer field on land or water, and by St. Iago! we
would have disputed it with you till set of sun. We came not
prepared for this fight - we have neither arms nor ammunition to
cope with an equal force much less with the swarm that you have
brought on horse and foot against this little boat's crew. Take
your victory and make the best of it!"

"Silence!" said Dauntrees with the habitual calmness of an
old soldier: "Call your men to the foot of yonder tree, or I may
prick them thither with a halbert."

Under a chestnut hard by, the remnant of the buccaneers,
amounting to not more than seven men beside their leader, were
assembled. Some of them bore the marks of the severity of the
conflict in wounds upon their persons. Three of the skipper's
men were found dead upon the field. Their opponents had
escaped with better fortune. Two only were found severely,
though, it was believed, not mortally wounded; - a few others
slightly. A guard was detailed to conduct the prisoners to
the boat; the dead were hastily buried in the wood, and the
wounded borne on the shoulders of their comrades to the point
of embarcation.

It was already afternoon when victors and vanquished were
bestowed in due order in the boats. The horsemen had by this
time set forward on their homeward journey, eager to report the
good tidings of the day. The captured yawl, manned with a
proper complement of rowers, was consigned to the maiden and
her faithful Bridget, attended by the Secretary and Captain
Dauntrees - the former of whom, we may imagine, had many
things to say to the maiden, which, however agreeable to the

narrator, would make but dull entertainment on our pages.
All matters being now disposed for sailing, the squadron of
boats, led by the yawl, put off in order from the shore, and, with
moderate speed, bent their course towards the anxious little city.

Before sundown the maiden was placed in her father's longing
arms on the little wharf of the Rose Croft, and, in due time, the
prisoners were marched through a crowd of gaping townspeople
into the fort of St. Mary's.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

No
more the slave of human pride,
Vain
hope and sordid care,
I
meekly vowed to spend my life
In
penitence and prayer.
THE
HERMIT OF WARKWORTH.

Oh
were I free, as I have been,
And
my ship swimming once more on the sea,
I'd
turn my face to fair England,
And
sail no more to a strange country.
OLD
BALLAD.

DURING the day occupied
by the events narrated in the last
chapter, The Cripple of St. Jerome's remained in the dwelling
of Father Pierre. His misanthropy had relaxed into a kinder
tone, and contrition had spread a sadness over his mind. In
this temper he had made his shrift, and abjured the lawless life
and evil fellowship into which his passions had plunged him, and
now offered up a sincere and needful vow of penitence, to which
he was resolved to devote the scant remainder of his days. The
good priest did not fail to encourage the convertite in his wholesome
purpose, nor to aid him with such ghostly counsel as was
likely to strengthen his resolution. At the period of life to
which The Cripple had attained, it is no difficult task to impress
upon the mind the value of such a resolution. When age and
satiety have destroyed the sense of worldly pleasure, the soul
finds a nourishment in the consolations of religion, to which it

flies with but slight persuasion; and however volatile and
self-dependent youth may deride it, the aged are faithful witnesses to
the truth, that in the Christian faith there is a spell to restore
the green to the withered vegetation of the heart, even as the
latter rain renovates the pastures of autumn.

The Proprietary had directed the brigantine to be brought
from Mattapany to St. Mary's, and she had, in consequence,
been anchored in the harbor, a short distance from the quay,
before Dauntrees had returned from his late expedition: the men
left by Cocklescraft to navigate her were held on board as prisoners,
under a small guard from the Mattapany Fort. The provincial
court, the chief judicial authority of the government, had
assembled on the same day, with the intention to continue its
sessions until the cases of the conspirators were disposed of.
The sitting of this court had attracted, from all quarters of the
province, an unusually large crowd of attendants; and the town
was accordingly filled with farmers, planters and craftsmen from
the interior, who, in character of suitors, witnesses, men of business,
or mere seekers of news, occupied every place of public accommodation.

Such was the state of things at the close of the day to which
we have referred. The faction adverse to the Proprietary,
notwithstanding the vigilance with which they were watched, still
found means for private conference. A few of the principal men
who had not yet fallen under the suspicion of the public authorities,
assembled in familiar guise under the roof of Chiseldine, and
there consulted upon their affairs. The hope of rescuing Fendall
and his companions by force, although somewhat depressed by
recent events, was not abandoned. There were some sufficiently
bold still to encourage this enterprise, and they spoke confidently
of the assistance of friends, now in the port, who were anxious to
bring about an immediate conflict with the Proprietary. It was

deemed essential to the success of this attempt that the Olive
Branch should be got into the possession of the conspirators:
without the aid of the brigantine, neither the escape of the prisoners,
nor the assistance of their confederates on the opposite
shore of the Potomac could be relied on, even if all the other
chances turned up favorably to the design.

These topics were duly debated in conclave, and the result
was a determination to leave the enterprise in the hands of those
who had projected it, either to be pursued or abandoned as the
means at their command might counsel. With this conclusion
the restless spirits, who had met at Chiseldine's, retired to
organize their plans amongst their kindred malcontents throughout
the town.

On the following morning when the hour for commencing
business drew nigh, an unwonted throng of customers frequented
the tap-room of the Crow and Archer. There was but little of
that cheerfulness which usually characterizes such a resort: the
occupants of the place seemed to be chiefly engaged with matters
that rendered them thoughtful, and their conferences were held
in under tones; many loitered through the room in silence; and
it was manifest that the aspect of public affairs had impressed all
with a sense of the weightiness of the issues which were pending.
The concourse was no less conspicuous upon the quay. Here
little knots of burghers and inland inhabitants, sorted according
to the complexion of their political sentiments, whether of
hostility or attachment to the Proprietary, were scattered about
in quiet communings, and exchanging distrustful and hostile
glances as they came within the sphere of each other's observation.
The yawl of the skipper lay secured to the wharf, and the
Escalfador, scarce a cable's length out in the stream, was near
enough to present to the view of the townspeople the sentinels
that paced her deck, and kept guard over the remnant of the

pirate band, who were yet detained on board until their presence
might be required by the authorities.

The arrival of Lord Baltimore at the Town House, attended
by Albert Verheyden and the greater number of the members of
the council, as it indicated his Lordship's intention to examine
the prisoners in person, served to increase the public interest in
the events of the day, and to draw a considerable portion of the
crowd into the immediate neighborhood of the Hall of Justice.
The Proprietary, with his friends, took possession of a chamber
opposite to that occupied by the court, where they were soon
joined by the sturdy old Collector, who, with an erect and
vigorous carriage, and a face flushed with mingled resentment
and pride of manhood aroused by the recent events, rode up to
the door and alighted amidst the salutations of his townsmen and
the clamorous expressions of their joy at the good fortune which
had restored him his daughter. A brief interval brought Father
Pierre, conducting Rob of the Bowl, to the same spot, and by
order of the Proprietary they were both admitted into the
chamber.

The prisoners had not yet arrived. In the mean time the
council were occupied with such inquiries as the presence of
Albert Verheyden suggested. The appearance and demeanor of
The Cripple of St. Jerome's, engrossed the chief interest of the
assembly. His age, his deformity, his singularly harsh and
shrewd features, the extraordinary mystery of his life, his connection
with the ruffians of the Chapel, his apparent contrition,
amounting to melancholy, - above all, his presence in this
conclave, amongst persons with whom he had never before exchanged
word, were circumstances of a nature to throw around him the
eager regard of the bystanders. There was a peculiarly subdued
and sorrowful expression in his countenance, as he gazed with
silent intensity upon the features of Albert Verheyden and

listened to his story of the disasters of that night of horrors in
which Rob had first become acquainted with him. The old man's
lip quivered and his eye glistened with a tear, as he dwelt upon
the tones of the Secretary's voice, and watched the changes of
his countenance. At length, whilst the Secretary still continued
his eventful narrative, unable longer to control his feelings or
restrain his eagerness to catch every word that fell from Albert's
lips, he heaved an involuntary but deep sigh, and muttered, loud
enough to be heard by every one in the apartment - "Oh, God,
I have been reserved for this deed! - in mercy have I been
spared to save his life." After a pause, he added in a voice of
loud and fervent entreaty - "I pray you, gentlemen, raise me to
the table that I may look him nearer in the face: - my eyes are
old and dim" he continued, wiping away the tear with his hand, -
"this seared and maimed trunk holds me too near the earth; -
it hath placed me below my fellow-man and taught my spirit to
grovel - to grovel;" he repeated with a bitter emphasis - "in the
very mire of the basest fellowship. - Lift me on the table, I
beseech you. - I have saved his life! - the saints be thanked,
I have saved his life!" he uttered with a wild gesticulation.
"Albert, I had made up my mind to save it with loss of my
own! - I had, boy!"

The strange frenzy that for the time seemed to possess the
deformed old man, the wild glance of his eye and the nervous
tone, almost of raving laughter, with which he ejaculated
these last words, gave rise to an instant doubt of the sanity
of his mind; but in a moment he subsided into a calmer state,
and resumed his original self-command.

Upon a sign from the Proprietary his request was complied
with, and he was lifted upon the table that occupied the middle
of the room.

this position; then suddenly checking himself for the familiarity
of the address, "I crave pardon - I forget - Master Verheyden,"
he added, choking with the utterance of the name, as now
within a few feet of the Secretary he still more narrowly gazed
upon his face - "I pray thee, go on!"

When the Secretary had concluded his narrative, a deep
silence prevailed throughout the room, and all eyes were bent
upon The Cripple, in expectation that he had something to
disclose which all were anxious to hear. He, however, remained
mute, still fixing his gaze upon Albert; and when the Secretary
casually turned his back upon him, he reached forth his hand and
caught the skirt of the young man's cloak, with an evidently
unconscious motion, as if he sought by this constraint to prevent
the Secretary from leaving him.

The Proprietary at length, as much struck with the deportment
of The Cripple as the rest who witnessed it, and hoping to
draw from him some history of himself, addressed him in a tone in
which the severity of rebuke seemed to have been softened by
the anxious interest he took in the endeavor to learn more of the
singular person to whom he spoke. It was therefore with a
grave, though scarcely stern manner that Lord Baltimore
accosted him:

"Master Robert Swale," he said, "the Secretary's narrative
which we have just heard has a dreadful import; nor is it colored
by a distempered fancy. We are all witnesses to facts connected
with this fearful tale, that leave no room to doubt the scrupulous
truth of all that has been told -"

"True - in every syllable, true!" interrupted Rob, with quick
assent. "As God shall judge us, it is all true."

"It is a tale," continued the Proprietary, "fraught with
crimes of ruthless men, who, we find, have lived in near
companionship with you. Long has the province been frightened

with stories of wicked rites celebrated in the Black Chapel, - as
our people have been taught to call that accursed house. The
common terror could solve the mystery only by referring it to the
acts of the Fiend, and it has ascribed to you some fearful
intercourse with evil spirits."

"It hath - it hath, and with reason! mea culpa, mea culpa,
mea maxima culpa!" muttered Rob, as he vehemently struck his
bosom with his open palm.

"More sober eyes have seen in your sequestered life and rare
communion with your fellow-men, but the evidences of a mind
soured by adversity - a mind, it would seem, not so humbly cast
as your condition might infer, but stricken, as the common belief
has signified, by some heavy blow of fortune."

A stifled groan spoke the listener's apprehension of the
Proprietary's words.

"All have been deceived: you have not lived that secluded
life which in charity many have imputed to you. No sorcery nor
witchcraft hath wrought these terrors, but the trickery of lawless
ruffians; and what was deemed your solitude, it is now confessed,
was active and commanding fellowship in this den of robbers.
Thou art too far journeyed in the vale of years to be reproved,
even if time, which seldom fails to do his office, had not already
been the avenger of the past. Your interposition in behalf of
the Secretary's life, your removal of the brigantine and prompt
repairing hither, as well as rumors, which I trust are true, of
clear shrift and penitential vow, announce an honest though a
late purpose of amendment. We think you owe it now to the
consummation of this good purpose, that you divulge all it
concerns us to know of that wicked haunt, the Wizard's Chapel, the
scene of so much grief and crime, and of its inmates. Speak
freely, old man."

tremulous voice, "the story of my life I have confided to this
holy man. Until my sand is run - would that its stream were
spent! - that story lies in his bosom under the seal of the
confessional. I dare not again rehearse it: - when I am gone he will
tell it. It will be heard with curses by many - I deserve them;
- but if a life clouded by disgrace and stung with misery may
atone for a deed of passion, I pray, with an humble spirit, that
my story may raise one voice of pity. - But it doth not concern
us to speak of this," he said, as in deep emotion he paused for
some moments with his hand closely pressed across his eyes -
"these are unaccustomed tears, my Lord, - I have not wept
before to-day this many a long year.

"What concerns my coming to the province, the life I have
led here, and the history of the Black House," he resumed after
an interval in which he had regained his composure - "of these,
I have no scruple to speak. Sixteen years ago, my Lord, I
sailed from a port on the other side of the Atlantic, with some
little store of wealth, consisting chiefly of jewels. My destination
was the islands: my name was hidden from the world, and I had
hoped to hide myself. Disasters at sea drove us upon this coast,
where, in a winter's storm, such as I have never known but that,
our ship was wrecked. I know not who survived - I only know
that it pleased Heaven, for my sins, to prolong a life that I could
have better parted with than any who found their grave beneath
the waters. I chanced to save the larger portion of my valuables,
and, on a raft of floating spars, was drifted into the Chesapeake,
where a fisherman took me up almost lifeless, famished
and starved with cold. He put me down at St. Jerome's - I had
no wish to face my fellow-men, - and, for such hire as I gave him,
provided me with comforts, the scant comforts my condition
needed in that forsaken house, which then was terrible, as it
hath been since - the house where Paul Kelpy murdered his own

family. There, my Lord, I lived a solitary lodger, with no
attendant near me except an aged woman, who afterwards
abandoned me and took up her habitation at Warrington on the
Cliffs: - she hath of late again returned. That winter passed
away in suffering - ay, to the full measure of my deserts - and
when spring came, my frosted limbs had rotted off, and I lay on
my pallet that wretched, deformed, and unsightly thing thou
seest me now. There, for many weary years, I dwelt, a man of
sin and misery. Use made my state familiar, and I began to
think that my penance would, at last, restore my peace of
mind. In this lone spot, from which all the world turned away
with shuddering, I did not dream that worldly passions could
again be awakened. But it so fell out that, four years ago,
a band of buccaneers in a trim brigantine, led by this ravening
wolf Cocklescraft, tempted their fortune in these waters. They
came in the disguise of traders, pitched upon the Chapel as their
lurking place, won me to their purpose of unlawful commerce,
and drove their craft with such success as you, my Lord, have
seen. I consorted with them, first because they were outlawed
men, and in that thought I took pleasure; - there was sympathy,
the food for which my heart was hungered. They built me
a lodge, and came and went as my familiar guests - and I made
money by them. Can you wonder, my Lord, that I became
their comrade? they made me their chief - I had their secret, -
they gave me friendship, - and they brought me that devil's lure,
gold - gold more than I had ever known before. Can you wonder,
my Lord, that I became their companion? The treasures
of the Chapel needed guarding from curious eyes. I made the
spot to be doubly desecrated - we had visors, masks, and strange
disguises. I had the skill to compound chemical fires: we had
sentinels on the watch, and plied our game of witchcraft seasonably,
till the whole country was filled with alarm -"

At this moment, some tumult from without attracted the
attention of the inmates of the chamber, and interrupted the
further narrative of The Cripple.

At a distance, in the direction of the fort, was seen a guard
of some ten or twelve musketeers advancing along the principal
street of the city, led by Captain Dauntrees in person, and
forming an escort to Cocklescraft and the prisoners who had been
captured with him. Their progress was impeded by the crowd
that thronged upon their path, amongst whom were some who
scarcely attempted to conceal their sympathy with the prisoners,
and who, by signs, if not by words, cheered them with the
hope of deliverance from their present durance. Nods of recognition
were exchanged with Cocklescraft, and significant gestures
made which he was at no loss to comprehend. The press
increased as they drew near the door of the Town House, and
in the disorder incident to the introduction of the prisoners into
the building, more than one of the movers in the late sedition
found an occasion to assure the master of the Escalfador, by a brief
hint, of their readiness to co-operate in seizing the brigantine.

Cocklescraft and his crew were conducted into the presence
of the Proprietary by Dauntrees, who, leaving the guard in the
hall or passage-way that separated the court room from that
occupied by the council, ranged the prisoners within the apartment
on either side of the door, which, being left open, exposed
to view the musketeers, who were thus in a position to do their
duty in case any difficulty should render their interference necessary;
whilst the crowd, at the same time, intruded itself into the
hall with such importunity as to leave but little space for the
occupation of the guard.

Cocklescraft had lost none of the moodiness that characterized
his demeanor after his surrender on the day previous. He
was somewhat paler, owing to the wound upon his brow, which

was now bound up with a bandage of black silk that, in some
degree, enhanced the sickly aspect of his complexion. Still the
fire of his spirit sparkled in his unquenched eye, and a sullen
scowl, as he looked Albert Verheyden in the face, rested on his
features. A slight but guarded expression of surprise flashed
across his countenance when his glance encountered Rob of the
Bowl. He was unaware of the presence of The Cripple in the
port; nor had he, up to this moment, ever entertained a suspicion
that Rob had deserted him. The escape of the Secretary
he imputed alone to the carelessness of the seamen; the failure
of the brigantine to meet him at the rendezvous, he set down to
accident and unskilfulness, and her presence now in the harbor
to a cause altogether disconnected with any conjecture of treachery
in The Cripple. Even the old man's presence before the
Council, he attributed to force, and believed him to be, like himself,
a prisoner. In this conviction he now found himself before
the chief authorities of the province. He was, of course, weaponless;
and as all eyes were turned upon him, he stood with
folded arms, his cloth cap dangling from his hand, gazing in silent
defiance upon the assembly. He meditated no purpose of defence
to the charges which he expected to hear: the facts of his late
outrage admitted none, and the presence of the Secretary assured
him that the crime he had attempted to perpetrate on All Soul's
Eve had been divulged in all its enormity, and with such full
identification of the actors in it as to render useless all attempt
even at palliation.

The unabashed gesture of the buccaneer, his confident port
and look, even of scorn, provoked an instant emotion of resentment
in the Proprietary, as well as of the greater number of those
who surrounded him.

"Viper!" he said, "dost thou approach us with this shameless
front to brave our authority in the province! Does no sense

of crime abash thy brow, that here, in the presence of those whom
thou hast most foully wronged, thou showest thy dastardly face
without a blush! Richard Cocklescraft, you came hither, as all
men thought, a peaceful trader, and found the friendship of the
port accorded to you, without stint or question. Again and
again you left us, and returned; and the townspeople ever gave
you hearty welcome to their homes. How brief a span is it,
since we saw you breaking bread and sharing the wine-cup with
this aged father, whose daughter, execrable villain, thou soughtest
to carry off by force, in the dead hour of the night? Hast thou
not plotted against the life of the Secretary? Didst thou not
murder the fisherman, bloody and remorseless man? Didst thou
not, like a coward, strike at the gray hairs of this venerable
man, when thou stol'st upon him in his sleep?"

"No!" replied the pirate leader, in a voice loud and angry,
undaunted by the presence of the chief functionaries of the
province, and untamed by his captivity. "He lies who says I struck
at the Collector! though, by St. Iago, Anthony Warden may
claim no favor at my hands, -"

"Favor at thy hands!" exclaimed the Collector, who could
not sit quiet whilst the skipper spoke - "A boy, who undertakes
to play at man's game, with men! - A boy, to prate me thus!"

"I struck not at the Collector," repeated Cocklescraft; "I
look to match my sword with men not spent with age. When
others would have beaten this old man to the ground, I saved
him. I plotted not against the Secretary's life," he continued,
answering the accusations which the Proprietary had at random
heaped upon him. "I slew the fisherman, as a hound that had
been set to track my path. I carried away this old man's daughter
because I loved her. Are you answered, Lord Baltimore?"

"Impudent outlaw!" returned the Proprietary, with an excitement
of speech altogether unaccustomed, "dost thou beard
us with the confession of thy crimes? Have the laws of the
province no terrors for thee?"

"I never acknowledged your Lordship's laws," retorted the
seaman, scornfully. "I have lived above them - coming when I
would, and going when it pleased me. By St. Anthony, your
Lordship hath but a sorry set of lieges! You might do well to
teach the better half of the freemen to remember that Charles
Calvert claims to be lord and master of this province - they
seem to have forgotten it. You think I am saucy, my Lord; I
have but one master here - Old Rob of the Trencher, my fellow
prisoner: - we will die in company."

"Peace, knave!" ejaculated Rob, in his former peevish voice
of command. "I know thee and thy villainies of old. Never
again call me comrade of thine. Thou shalt not depart in ignorance
of the favor you owe me, Dickon Cocklescraft. Know that
I saved the Secretary's life - that I gave back the daughter to
her father's bosom -"

"I foiled thee," replied Rob, as a vengeful smile played on
his features, "in thy horrid plot; - I saved the boy's life - ha,
ha! I saved his life! - and left thee on the island without a
refuge - thy villainy deserved it."

"Betrayed, - betrayed by thee!" vociferated the pirate, as
with the swift spring of the tiger he threw himself upon The
Cripple, and seized the long knife from the old man's girdle, and
plunged it deep into his bosom, shouting as he struck the blow,
"By St. Iago, I have paid thee for it!"

The suddenness of the deed took all by surprise, and scarce a
step was made nor a hand raised to arrest the murderer, who,

with a quickness that defied orderly resistance, turned towards
the door, with the bloody weapon in his hand, and pronouncing
aloud the watchword that seemed to electrify his men - "A la
savanna!" rushed, at the head of his crew, into the hall. The
guards at the door were no less unprepared for resistance than
the persons within, whilst the crowd in the hall gave ground,
with that sudden panic which belongs to all unorganized masses
of men, and fled tumultuously before the buccaneer and his band
- thus increasing the confusion and rendering it impossible for
the weak guard of the hall either to follow the fugitives with the
necessary expedition to overtake them, or to fire upon them,
without risk of greater injury to friend than foe.

As soon as Cocklescraft was seen on the open ground in
front of the Town House, driving with headlong haste towards
the quay, the partisans of Coode and Fendall, constituting a
considerable number of those who frequented the spot, increased
the disorder by a clamor which, under the show of pursuit, in
truth retarded the movement of those who endeavored to
intercept the flying band. The momentary consternation in the
chamber being over, the Proprietary and those around him,
sprang from their seats and ran to the great door, whence they
could witness the struggle of pursuit. Dauntrees, at the first
moment, had repaired to his men, and was immediately busy in
attempting to open a way through the crowd, in which he was
greatly impeded by the tumultuous interference of the malcontents.
Albert Verheyden, in the act of moving to leave the
apartment, was recalled by the voice of the wounded man, and
instantly returned to his side, where, with Father Pierre, he
awaited in anxious suspense, the recapture of the prisoners.

Meantime Cocklescraft furiously urged his onward course.
He had snatched a sword in the crowd, with which he became a
formidable enemy to all who crossed his path, and soon

discovered, from their shouts, that his nearest pursuers were in fact
aiding his escape. The only exception to this was Talbot and
our old friend Arnold, who, foremost in the melee, had at one
moment, as they sped down the bank, come in actual contact
with the fugitives, and Talbot had exchanged more than one
pass with Cocklescraft. The crowd thickened on the quay;
shouts rent the air, and cries of encouragement and strife
resounded from all sides.

The passage over the quay was opened - the boat gained, the
rope severed, the oars in place, - and in another instant the
buccaneers were in full flight upon their accustomed element.
The musketeers hasten to the wharf, - their small band jostled,
pressed, and swayed by the incumbering crowd - an ineffectual
volley is fired - Cocklescraft waves his hand in triumph - the
Escalfador is won from the feeble resistance of her light guard,
and the pirates are again upon their own deck. The cable is
slipped, sail after sail drops from the yard or runs up along the
mast - the brigantine swings round to a fair and stiff breeze
under a cloudless heaven, and cleaves her way mid-stream
towards the mouth of the river. A few harmless shot were fired
from the fort, as she bounded past; and almost before the
bewildered burghers were aware, she had swept beyond the
limit of the harbor - her daring master standing at the helm and
looking back at the town, scarce able to realize the truth of his
own escape, as he waved his bonnet in derision of the gaping
crowd. Many eyes still lingered upon this fleeting vision, until
the white sails of the Escalfador disappeared behind the projecting
headland which opened to her prow the broad current of the
Potomac.

Not all could note this stirring strife of flight. A melancholy
attraction drew back the Proprietary and his council to the
chamber. When Albert was recalled to the side of the wounded

man, it was but to hear his own name pronounced in a whispered
accent, and then to see the sufferer faint away. For some minutes,
Father Pierre and the Secretary, the only persons in the
room, thought life was fled; but whilst they still watched, the
light of the eye flickered upon them, and, by degrees, a sickly
animation returned to the body. When Lord Baltimore and
the others had gathered around, Rob was able to speak. His
voice was faint, and his gaze was upon the secretary.

"My web is wove," he said, in that figurative language
which had grown to be his habitual form of expression.
"Albert Verheyden, thou look'st upon - upon thy father -
William Weatherby - a man of crime - and misery. Thy hand,
boy - thy lips upon my brow - there - there," he whispered, as
his son, pale as a spectre and trembling with emotion, bent
down over his prostrate trunk and kissed his forehead. "Pity
me, my son, and forgive me for thy mother's sake. Poor
Louise - Louise -" and with this name again and again breathed
from his lips, when no other sound could be heard, his spirit was
gradually wafted from its mutilated and weary tenement of clay.

"I forgive thee - I forgive and pity!" breathed Albert, with
sobs that shook his whole frame, as he threw himself upon the
lifeless body of his father.

"My dear Albert, leave this place," said Father Pierre;
"let us go to the Chapel, and there thou may'st temper thy
grief with prayer. His lordship will take order for the disposal
of the body. I have a paper which I was charged, when this
event should take place - and in his reckoning it was not far
off - to deliver into thy hands. Come, and when we have done
our duty at the altar, I will give it thee."

With silent step and slow, Albert leaning, on the arm of the
priest, they left the Town House, and walked towards the little
Chapel of St. Mary's.

CHAPTER XXXIV.
HERE ends my tale. We have no longer an interest to follow
the fortunes of the personages who have been brought to view
in this motleyed narrative of trivial and tragic events. A brief
memorandum will tell all that remains to gratify the inquiries of
my readers:

After the crossings of fortune which we have read in the
history of Albert and Blanche, we may presume the time, at
last, came for the current of true love to run smooth as a glassy
lake. The next festival at the Rose Croft found Father Pierre
in a prominent official position, and the maiden a blooming bride
upon the arm of the happy Secretary.

The worldly wise will be pleased, perhaps, to learn that,
after some most liberal appropriations to charitable uses, by way
of purification of the more than doubtful uncleanness of the
Cripple's wealth, Albert fell heir to no small hoard; and this
gear, as it was generously distributed in acts of hospitality and
bounty to the poor, we would fain hope the straitest casuist will
allow, was not unjustly taken by the Secretary, - his title to it
resting upon the will of William Weatherby, which was produced
in due time by Father Pierre.

As to the conspirators, they were losers in every way.
First, the buccaneer and his brigantine came not to their
rescue; and secondly, the trials proceeded without interruption.

Josias Fendall was fined in a very heavy sum, and imprisoned
at the pleasure of the Proprietary. His brother and John
Coode, from some apprehension of rousing too keenly the
popular grudge, were more mildly dealt with. George Godfrey
was sentenced to death, but finding favor upon the petition of
his wife, had his punishment commuted into a rigorous
confinement in the jail of St. Mary's.

What became of the other confederates of Coode and
Fendall, the records do not inform us; but we may infer
that the dominant party in the province felt their authority
too slender to prosecute them with much severity -

"They
fear to punish, therefore do they pardon."

Touching our
unfortunate friend of "the gentle craft," the
warlike corporal, history happens to have embalmed his memory
with the unction of a favorite, and to have consigned him to the
notice of posterity with a distinctness of fame that would, if he
could have contemplated it, have almost made him, in spite of
his miseries, in love with rebellion. I find in the proceedings of
the council, in the month of March following these events, "the
humble petition" of Edward Abbott, a "poor, distressed, and
sorrowful penitent," who most dolorously complains of his
insufferable confinement, meekly confessing his sins, and affirming,
by way of extenuation, that, in the commission of them, "he was
so much in drink that he did not remember any thing either
what was done or spoken at the time." And to this petition is
appended the following entry, -

"The petitioner making his submission in open court, upon
his knees begging pardon for his offense, the Justices are ordered
to wave sentence passing against him, his lordship having
granted his pardon."